Ship pollutants kill thousands, US study
Nishika Patel
Thursday, November 08, 2007

Up to 30,000 people in Hong Kong and other port cities in Asia could die over the next 12 months as an indirect result of shipping, a study has revealed.

Hong Kong, as one of the world's five busiest ports, was likely to experience a disproportionate health impact from ship pollutants, according to the American Chemical Society's journal Environmental Science and Technology.

The report, published yesterday, said 60,000 people worldwide die annually as a result of diseases and complications brought about by marine emissions. With 191,940 trade vessels arriving in Hong Kong last year, these emissions directly entered 3.6 million homes, the report said.

The study, conducted by leading researchers in the US and Germany, predicted annual deaths could increase by 40 percent by 2012 due to trade- driven growth in shipping.

It said about 1.2 to 1.5 million tonnes of particulate matter emissions, spewed from ships each year, are to blame for many cardiopulmonary and lung cancer deaths.

Coastal regions on major trade routes such as Hong Kong will suffer the most as nearly 70 percent of ship emissions, particularly sulfur oxide, occur within 400 kilometers of land.
"As expected, regions with the greatest mortality effects are also those where shipping-related fine particulate matter concentrations are high, near coastal regions, major waterways and in highly populated areas," the report noted.

The authors have proposed the data should be recognized at a policy level to reduce ship emissions from engine combustion and exhausts.

They added the link between ship emissions and health impacts had not been fully explored.
The report is timely as the United Nation's International Maritime Organization is currently debating whether to adopt a new round of emission standards for international ships at meetings in London over the next six months.

Diesel-powered oceangoing ships burn some of the dirtiest fuel in the world, having nearly 2,000 times the sulfur content of diesel fuel used on the highway.

The think-tank Civic Exchange welcomed the study, urging the Hong Kong government to adopt a green port policy which would see engines retrofitted with pollution controlling devices and the use of low-sulfur fuels.

"This is a very important study which establishes a link between marine emissions and health effects," said Civic Exchange environmental program manager Michele Weldon.

"Marine pollution is a huge problem in Hong Kong, but this is not a priority for the government."
The government is currently looking at legislation that would tighten shipping regulations.
These would see international controls on the emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, ozone-depleting gases, volatile hydrocarbon gases from ships, the quality of fuels used onboard, and the use of shipboard incinerators.