Indian and Bangladeshi shipbreaking workers called on the industry's chiefs meeting in London Monday to bolster regulation to cut deaths and injuries.

"Shipbreaking workers in India and other parts of the world need work, but they need safe work," said Vidyadhar V. Rane, secretary of the Mumbai Port Trust Dock and General Employees' Union.

"I am appealing to the developed countries who send their ships to Asia to take some responsibility and save lives," he added in a statement.

Rane is part of a delegation in London to tell the International Maritime Organisation's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) about conditions in the shipbreaking industry. Recycling of ships is on the agenda of the MEPC, meeting here until October 13.

According to the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), which acts on behalf of 25 million metalworkers across the globe, shipbreaking is one of the world's

most dangerous industries.

Thousands of workers, many of whom are migrants, die, are injured or fall ill when recycling ships. They have little or no legal rights, protective equipment or medical aid and earn only about one dollar a day.

Ninety-five percent of old ships are broken up and recycled on the beaches of India, Bangladesh, China, Pakistan and Turkey but its poorly-paid employees have to run the gauntlet of life-threatening hazards on a daily basis.

These include fire, explosions, falls from heights and exposure to asbestos, heavy metals and PVCs.

Discussions are under way at the IMO to develop internationally-agreed regulations on the recycling of ships but they are unlikely to be adopted until 2009 and not implemented until 2015, the IMF said.

The shipbreaking workers are being represented by the Genevabased IMF with support from the International Transport Workers' Federation in London and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Brussels.