Ship breaking, Alang, India

On Thursday 11 November the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee will release a report calling for urgent action to eradicate the practice of UK ships being sent to India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China and Turkey for disposal.

All large ships contain hazardous materials like asbestos, PCBs, waste oils and fuels and are currently broken in developing countries, where there is virtually no protection for either workers health or the environment. In many of these countries ships are simply beached and materials like asbestos are removed by workers without protective clothing. Gas torches are used for cutting metals even when fuel is present and PVC cables are burnt in the open air. Oils and liquid wastes drain directly into the sea.

Following the import of four rusting US military ships to Hartlepool and the subsequent government refusal to grant a licence for their disposal here, Greenpeace drew attention to the fact that Britain was guilty of regularly dumping similar ships on developing countries. On 23 March 2004 Greenpeace, Peter Mandelson and the GMB launched the START ship recycling in Britain campaign demanding that

1. The UK government supports the development of purpose-designed and built, state of the art ship recycling facilities in Britain.

2. The government brings in a policy to ensure that government-owned vessels will be entirely recycled within the EU at state of the art facilities.

3. The government should seek to persuade British ship owners to recycle their vessels at state of the art facilities within the EU and must urgently explore ways of compelling all EU ship owners to dispose of their ships at such facilities.

Greenpeace campaigner Mark Strutt said: "Greenpeace welcomes the Environment Committee's report and agrees with its conclusions that dismantling British ships in wholly inadequate conditions in Asia or Turkey is unacceptable and must be stopped as a matter of urgency."

He added: "We hope the government heeds the recommendations of the Committee and ensures that from now on all government-owned vessels are dismantled in the UK.

He concluded: "They should support the development of purpose designed, state of the art ship recycling facilities in the UK and put pressure on commercial ship owners to cease sending ships contaminated with hazardous materials like asbestos, PCB and waste oils to developing countries."

Further information
Greenpeace has broadcast quality footage and stills of ships being broken on the beaches in India, Pakistan and Turkey. To get copies or to arrange an interview contact Greenpeace UK press office on 020 7865 8255.

PVC toys

'Gender bending' and other chemicals that can damage reproductive organs, interfere with growth and development and damage the immune system have been found contaminating children even while they are still in the womb, according to a report published today by Greenpeace (1).

The report further finds that these chemicals are likely to have a far more significant effect on pre-natal and newly born children than they do on adults, because of differences in patterns of absorption, metabolism and excretion of chemicals.

The report launch coincides with the release of the results of tests by independent scientists commissioned by Greenpeace (2). The tests found the same hazardous chemicals in a sample of consumer products including children's pyjamas, toys and baby feeding bottles, as well as perfumes, paints, car interior cleaners and air fresheners.

These chemical pollutants can be passed to the unborn child from the mother and very young children can absorb substances in products through their mouth and skin.

Among the products tested were:

• Children's pyjamas - 5 pairs of Disney branded pyjamas and 1 pair of Bob the Builder pyjamas:
  
  Nonylphenol - thought to interfere with human DNA and effect sperm production in mammals - were found in Disney branded pyjamas as well as in a "Bob the Builder" garment from Mothercare. High levels of the closely related nonylphenol ethoxylate were also found in all garments tested.
  
  All the children's garments also contained phthalates, which are banned from teething toys under emergency legislation because they can cause liver, kidney and testicular damage. The highest levels of phthalates were found in Disney "Tigger" pyjamas.
• Chad Valley ducks: Very high levels of nonylphenol and pthaltates were also found in a Chad Valley bath duck bought from Woolworth.
• A Toys-R-Us baby feeding bottle contained Bisphenol-A which has been shown to cause genetic damage in mice and is known to mimic hormones.
• Tests on perfumes, air fresheners, cleaning products and paints also found toxic organotins and artificial musk compounds

The findings come a week before the European Commission will present new legislation to Parliament that will supposedly bring greater protection to consumers from the uncontrolled use of chemicals (3). However loopholes in the regulation mean chemicals that can build up in the human body and damage health - the kind of chemicals found in the study - may be unaffected by the new rules.

Greenpeace Campaigner Mark Strutt said, "On behalf of every parent Greenpeace demands the new law on chemicals will make sure that hazardous chemicals that get into children's bodies are phased out and replaced with safer substitutes".

He added, "Replacing these chemicals with safer alternatives will benefit everybody. Its time for the chemical industry to stop polluting children's bodies."

Information on products that contain chemicals that pollute the human body and safer alternatives is available at the Greenpeace "Chemical Home" website: www.greenpeace.org.uk/chemicals.htm

Notes for editors

For more information contact Mark Strutt on 0207 865 8226 or the Greenpeace press office on 0207 865 8255.

(1) See the new Greenpeace report 'Chemical legacy -contamination of the child' (PDF)

(2) The tests were commissioned by Greenpeace and undertaken by TNO Laboratory in the Netherlands. Full results are available here. (PDF)

(3) The REACH legislation (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) is expected to be published on October 29th. It will then be considered by the European parliament and should become law in 2005.

Other Greenpeace toxics reports are available online. These reports will open as PDFs:

• Human Impacts of manmade chemicals - an overview.
• Safer Chemicals within Reach - using the substitution principle to drive green chemistry.
• Consuming chemicals - levels of chemicals in house dust as an indicator of human exposure.

Phasing out PVC

The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution warned today that man-made chemicals posed 'unacceptable' risks to human health and wildlife and called for a 'fundamental reform' of government policy on chemicals. Greenpeace welcomed in particular the Commission's call for the central goal of government policy on chemicals to be the 'systematic substitution of hazardous substances with those of a lower hazard'. The report also advised financial penalties for companies that persisted in using dangerous chemicals where less harmful alternatives already exist.

Greenpeace toxics campaigner Oliver Knowles said, "Ensuring that chemical companies are actually forced to substitute hazardous chemicals for safer alternatives must the core of any chemicals policy. The chemical industry has failed to ensure that the chemicals it produces for use in everyday products in our homes are clean and safe. Now the government must take action and ensure the mandatory substitution of harmful chemicals with safer alternatives."

The European Commission is currently running a public consultation on new chemicals legislation called REACH (1). The proposals, designed to clean up chemical production and use, and ensure products are safer for the environment and human health, have been fiercely attacked by the European chemicals industry. Greenpeace has submitted a detailed report to the European Commission as part of this public consultation. Read it here

Further information:

(1) REACH - Registration, Evaluation and Assessment of Chemicals.