Ban Asbestos News

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) should amend regulations banning the use of asbestos and asbestos containing materials (ACM) in ships, says John Chillingworth, senior marine principal at Lucion Marine. Regulations under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) state that if asbestos is found onboard a ship built after July 2002 then the vessel’s flag registry, in conjunction with its classification society, issues a non-extendable exemption certificate, providing the owner with a three-year window in which to remove the asbestos.

The groups Ban Asbestos and the National Association for the Defense of Asbestos Victims, or ANDEVA, held meetings with the office of France's defense minister. The groups hope to stop the transfer of the decommissioned aircraft carrier Clemenceau to India, where it is to be scrapped. The dispute centers on the amount of asbestos that is still present on the ship, even after some insulation has already been removed. Many fear that workers in Asian countries are not sufficiently protected from dangerous substances such as asbestos while they dismantle the ships. Source: NSNet