Ship Laden with Asbestos Sparks Environmental Protests
Le Clemenceau is an 878 foot, 27000 ton French aircraft carrier decommissioned in 1997 which contains asbestos and other toxic materials. It has been sitting in the French Port of Brest since 2006 but will now be moved to Hartlepool, Britain, to be stripped and scrapped, along with four other American warships. The Environment Agency (EA) granted permission to break up and scrap parts from the contaminated ships at a dock that is designed for this purpose.
The hope is that the approval to scrap the contaminated vessels in a secure dry dock with safety precautions taken will prevent innocents from exposure to asbestos and prevent toxic leaks and dumping into major water systems.
For a long time, ships needing to be parted out and recycled would be sent to India and other third world countries where safety regulations around removal of toxic materials, such as asbestos, do not exist and are not enforced. In India, unprotected and uninformed people, often women and children, would scrap the ships. Stripping ships under these conditions often leads to environmental pollution and huge risk for workers of contracting asbestos related diseases such as mesothelioma, asbestosis and lung cancer. If workers contract such diseases, there is little access to treatment or compensation.
Although environmentalists in France and the UK oppose the move and dismantling of contaminated ships, others argue that it will actually protect not only the environment but also workers from the ill-effects of asbestos and other toxic chemicals by ensuring safe removal and scrapping.
Able UK is the company that was awarded the contract and claims to have more than 20 years experience stripping vessels that are made of and/or contain contaminated materials. Their plan is to first strip the Clem of all non-metallic materials, including asbestos. The waste material is then taken to a nearby landfill site, and the metal from the ship is scrapped and melted down into new steel.
It is estimated that 200 other oil tankers need to be disposed of by 2015, and there is hope that if the dismantling is allowed, new jobs will be created for people in the area. Opposers fear that exposure to asbestos and pollution will be unavoidable and wish not to extend the legacy of deaths caused by hazards associated with toxic exposure from the ships.
