Sydney Ferry Fatality Raises Best Practice Issue
The importance of maintaining chemical toilets onboard ship has been raised following an incident in February onboard a Sydney Harbor-operating passenger ferry in which a high level of toxic gas was detected in a toilet cubicle after a passenger was fatally injured.A 39-year-old passenger was found unconscious in a toilet cubicle aboard the Lady Rose and could not be revived by paramedics. While the reasons behind her death are unconfirmed, during the initial investigation HAZMAT…
Alert! Issue No. 34: Improved Conditions and Safer Ships
The need for seafarers to have decent living conditions is enshrined in the new Maritime Labor Convention (MLC), but the latest issue of the International Maritime Human Element Bulletin Alert! explains why habitability is important for reasons of efficiency and safety. The MLC gives port state inspectors power to detain vessels that do not conform to decent habitability standards and provides a strict regulatory framework to ensure that seafarers live in decent conditions. Alert! also explains other benefits, including ensuring crews can work more efficiently. Issue No.34 is packed with useful information about this important topic, which is more complicated than merely providing each seafarer with a cabin and a bunk.
Halul to Purchase Four Offshore Vessels
Halul Offshore Services (HOSC) will buy four new safety standby vessels at a cost of about $16m and signed a contract with a Singaporean shipbuilder Pacific Ocean Engineering (POE). The contract for the vessels, expected to be built in 16 months at the POE’s shipyard in China, was signed by HOSC chairman Sheikh Hamad bin Suhaim al-Thani and POE managing director Raymond Quah. The vessels, designed to provide safety cover to offshore installations for protection and rescue operations, are equipped with fire fighting pumps, life saving gadgets and environment monitoring systems for checking poisonous hydrogen sulphide gas and flammable gases. Each vessel will have a fast rescue craft capable of being fast deployed for rescue of survivors from the sea.
