Epa cites shipping company for transporting toxic material to india

The Environmental Protection Agency has filed a complaint against a company that it believes intends to scrap a liner that contains large amounts of asbestos and PCBs. The company is Global Shipping LLC, based in Cumberland, Maryland. The EPA believes that the company has plans to scrap the SS Oceanic, a 682-foot liner, at a port in Gujarat, India. The complaint was filed by the EPA in San Francisco, and was subsequently denied by Global Shipping. The EPA complaint imposes a fine of $32,500 per day. The SS Oceanic was built in 1951 and reportedly carries 250 tons of asbestos, and 210 tons of PCBs within its framework. Both of these materials were widely used in ship-building prior to the late 1970s. Both materials are known human carcinogens, and asbestos exposure can also cause chronic lung conditions, including asbestosis. Many environmental organizations are concerned about the possibility environmental and health effects of the dismantling of ships such as the SS Oceanic, not only because workers may be exposed to large amounts of the contaminants, but also because these toxic chemicals can be released in large amounts into soil and groundwater. Dismantling and scrapping of ships is often done in Bangladesh, India, and China. Founder and President of Global Shipping, Dr. Anil Sharmer, told an Indian newspaper that the SS Oceanic will not be scrapped in India, but is actually intended to be sold to buyers in Dubai or Macau. However, Sharmer said he could not confirm the current location of the ship. The EPA, and a non-profit environmental group known as Basel Action Network, believes that the SS Oceanic is bound for a port called Alang in Gujarat, where older ships are often scrapped for their valuable steel. However, according to Rich Vaille, the EPA’s Pacific Southwestern Region Associate Director for Waste Program Enforcement, federal law prohibits companies from exporting PCBs in any form, including in ships that are being sent overseas for scrapping. According to the federal Toxic Substances Control Act, says Vaille, companies that illegally export PCB waste in this way are circumventing U.S. requirements for safe and proper disposal of the waste. Another EPA spokesperson, Dean Higuchi, said that the agency wants the ship to be cleaned of asbestos and PCBs before being scrapped. In response to the EPA’s complaint, Global Shipping says that it did not have to notify the EPA before moving the ship, and also that the EPA did not ask the company what it planned to do with the ship before filing its complaint. Jim Puckett, director of the Basel Action Network, says that workers in the Alang port who are involved in scrapping the ships are exposed to extreme hazards, and don’t have the knowledge or equipment needed to safety work on the ships. Puckett also pointed to a 2006 government survey of Alang shipyard workers that indicated one in six of the workers had developed asbestosis symptoms. (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)