Falling steel, explosions and toxic fumes are
all in a day's work at the world's most dangerous job.
At least 17 people died and dozens more
suffered injuries following an explosion on Tuesday at the Gadani ship breaking
yard in Pakistan. Over 200 employees were working on stripping down an unused
oil tanker when the incident occurred at Gadani, one of the largest ship
breaking yards in the world.
The tragedy marks the single worst accident
in ship breaking history ever reported, but the industry is not exactly one
that prioritizes worker safety, as explosions, falls and other hazards threaten
laborers' lives every day, as Nicola Mulinaris with the NGO Shipbreaking
Platform, a coalition of environmental, human and labor rights organizations,
explains.
"Shipbreaking has been declared the most
dangerous job in the world by the International Labour Organization
(ILO)," Mulinaris told Seeker in an e-mail. Workers do the entire job on a
beach, an environment that's inaccessible to the kind of heavy machinery needed
to cut steel. Instead, workers use blow torches to break ships down piece by
piece and let gravity do the rest.
Because of the methods used to tear down
ships, large sections of the vessel crash down on the beach, often crushing
workers below, Mulinaris said. Explosions and falls that injure or kill workers
are also common in the industry. Protective gear, such as breathing masks to
prevent workers from toxic fumes, and adequate training are not common in the
industry, however.
And that's just what workers face in a
typical day on the job. Over the long term, the exposure to toxic fumes,
hazardous materials and unhealthy working and living conditions as a result of
the job increase the risks of both debilitating and fatal health conditions,
such as cancer or asbestosis — lung disease caused by inhaling asbestos.
Workers in the industry in South Asia, where
more than 70 percent of end-of-life ships are sold to substandard breaking
yards, are paid less than $3 a day, working long hours without overtime or paid
holidays. "No support is given to disabled workers to start a new
livelihood, and the families are often thrown back into extreme poverty,"
Mulinaris said.
In an industry that relies on doing toxic
work on unprotected beaches, it's no surprise that ship breaking is a major
source of environmental pollution as well. Debris, paint chips and other toxic
byproducts of the breakdown process end up both in the water and the sand.
Hazardous materials are often either illegally dumped or resold on local
markets.
Ultimately, this is a case of an industry
prioritizing profits over human safety and environmental sustainability.
"Safe and environmentally sound ship recycling is possible. Sustainable
alternatives already exist," Mulinaris writes.
Every years, around 1,000 large commercial
ships are dismantled, representing millions of tons of scrap metal. With the
European Union soon to publish a list of approved ship breaking facilities
around the world, ship owners have an opportunity to take their business to
sustainable services, and critics of the industry like the NGO Shipbreaking
Platform are hoping that owners make such a course correction.
Source: 03 November 2016
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