Health risks of shipping pollution have been 'underestimated'

I've only been on a cruise ship twice and must say I was appalled by the amount of crap they spewed into the air.

 

Tim,

And yet you don't believe in human caused global warming? Isn't there a bit of a cognitive disconnect there?

Icarus

 

Icarus, not necessarily... on another note, it takes a MASSIVE amount of energy to move a ship that big through the water, particularly if it is moving quickly. Bunker oil is hardly a clean fuel as well. It about the least refined fuel you can put in an engine.

 

One question that I have about these studies is how do they tease apart maritime pollution contributions to health problems from the other myriad sources? Pollution in general costs us a lot of money... a cost that isn't factored into the cost of the fuel, but how can they differentiate maritime pollution from, say, asian pollution on the US west coast?

 

Used to sell a byproduct stream to the fuel blenders for bunker oil. They complained it had too much ether in it and asked if I could get it out. My response was, "Of course it has a lot of ether in it, did they not look at the COA or MSDS? I would love to get the ether out of it (since that was one of my products) but there is no economically feasible way to separate it from this small volume, very light mixed stream." Would have loved to burn it in our own boilers, but instead we could only sell it for pennies on the btu value dollar.

This of course was the result of some idiotic boiler law (BIF) interpretations by the Feds that prevented us from burning perfect byproduct streams in our steam boilers...because the byproduct was incredibly flammable and therefore hazardous. :doh: (Kinda the point of a good fuel...) Later on we ended up incinerating it for about 60% lower energy recovery. :tsk: What a waste.

 

I wouldn't say it has been underestimated. Scientist and regulators have known about the problem but ship pollution hasn't received much media attention.

Subject Top Page: Commercial Marine Vessels

 

It's not just the health risks of pollution that's a problem with shipping. The practice of dumping ballast and bilge waters from foreign seas has resulted in the introduction of invasive species all over the world. The Great Lakes, in particular, suffer with this problem.

 

To say nothing of dumping sewage and trash. Seems to me it's kinda like taking a dump in your living room then inviting guests over and ignoring the piles of shit you have dumped previously. What would make you think your guests even want to visit you a second time after seeing the disgusting mess you have left behind before. It's called cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

I've been once on a cruise ship too and they do emit huge amount of pollution i the air.

 

Isn't it more like being invited to a friend's and dropping a deuce in their living room? Not to put to fine a point on it...

 

Thanks for the clarification, Tripp!