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One dies a week in ship breaking

Reveals study

STAFF CORRESPONDENT, Ctg
On average one worker dies every week and one gets injured every day at the ship-breaking yards in Bangladesh and the number of casualties is on the rise, said a survey report styled "End of Life
Ships-The Human Cost of Breaking Ships" that was presented at a city restaurant yesterday.
Released simultaneously in Bangladesh, India and Switzerland, the report was prepared by globally acclaimed
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organisations Greenpeace and FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights) in cooperation with Chittagong-based non-government organisation YPSA (Young Power in Social Action).
The survey by the three organisations estimated that the total death toll in ship-breaking yards worldwide in last twenty years might be several thousand while in Bangladesh the figure would be at least 1,000.
“Such official or estimated figures, however, do not include casualties as a result of diseases related to the toxic fumes and materials the workers are exposed to the whole day work,” the report mentioned.
It cited manifold difficulties in obtaining accurate data about casualties.
Most of the workers at shipbreaking yards, especially in Bangladesh and India, have little education and come from poorest areas of their countries and they fall easy victims of exploitation by the yard owners, the report said.
“The workers are being provided neither with the adequate training nor with the equipment to work in such a dangerous and toxic environment, although ship-breaking is considered by the International Labour Organisation as one of the heaviest and most hazardous occupations,” it added.
Besides, almost all of the vessels condemned for breaking contain hazardous substances such as asbestos, oil sludge, paints containing lead, other heavy metal like cadmium and arsenic, poisonous biocides and even radioactive substances, the report stated.
In Bangladesh yard owners or authorities do not keep records of data about the ship-breaking workers and the only sources of information about those workers are the reports of local media, the report said.
The report suggested for an urgent enforcement of the environmental justice and human rights principles by the authorities concerned in the ship-breaking industries.
YPSA Advisor AMM Toha, Prof Dr Shafiq Haider Chowdhury of Chittagong University Zoology Department, Dr Afroza Begum of Public Administration Department, Chief Reporter of daily Suprobhat Bangladesh M Nasirul Haque, Bhorer Kagoj Bureau Chief Omar Kaiser and Staff Reporter of daily Independent Nazimuddin Shyamol discussed the report presented by YPSA Project Official Mohammad Ali Shahin.