Green Ships:Green Ship Countries
Contents
India
Specific Harms
Alang, India: (Occupational) Shipbreakers exposed to substances like asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls, residual oil, and situations such as explosions and falling steel. (Puthucherril) There is no systematic training for the workforce, and injuries and fatalities are common.' Accidents where 15 men die at once are unfortunately common. (Dodds) Most shipwrecking workers in SW Asia live in shanties made of recycled ship steel. Housing and sanitary conditions worsened by transient nature. (Dodds) Popular because located close to major trade routes, offer minimum transport distances, low-cost for labor-intensive work, insufficient or nonenforced legislative frameworks, ready made market for old ship components (pumps, generators, compressors, motors) refurbished and applied in emerging industrialized economies, conveniently large inter-tidal zones where high tides allow vessel to be beached under its own power. (Dodds) India worldleader in shipwrecking by volume, State of Gujarat along beaches of Alang. (Dodds) Reports from Alang beach indicate shipwrecking facilities heavily contaminated with heavy metals, asbestos, and TBT. (Dodds)
