Going overboard? Shipping rules seen shifting pollution from air to sea

(Reuters News, 21 Oct 2019) A study last year found ship emissions with current sulphur levels caused about 400,000 premature deaths from lung cancer and cardiovascular disease.

New global rules forcing ships to reduce air pollution by using cleaner fuels will see more sulphur and nitrates dumped into the oceans, analysts and civil society leaders say.

From January 2020, the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) will ban ships from using fuels with a sulphur content above 0.5%, compared with 3.5% now.

The rules herald the biggest leap in how ships are powered since they switched from burning coal to oil over a century ago, but vessels will still be allowed to use higher-sulphur fuel if fitted with cleaning devices called scrubbers.

Closed-loop scrubbers keep most of the water used for sulphur removal onboard for disposal at port. Open-loop systems, however, remove sulphur coming through a ship's smokestack with water that can then be pumped overboard.

"Were open-looped scrubbers ever a really good idea?" Bill Hemmings of the Clean Shipping Coalition told industry figures at the IMO's headquarters in London.

Such systems could provide a cautionary tale on half-measures to tackle emissions, he said.

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Reuters News, 21 Oct 2019: Going overboard? Shipping rules seen shifting pollution from air to sea