Bangladeshi workers dismantling ships and recycling the vessels' parts say they know their jobs are dangerous, but they have no better options to feed their families. At least 10 workers were killed in mishaps and explosions on board ships while they were being dismantleds over the past year, to raise the toll to over 1,000 since 1996, police say.
About 30,000 workers, only a few wearing boots and almost none with helmets, work in some 22 shipbreaking yards in Bangladesh to dismantle around 80 giant, out-of-service ocean-going vessels and oil-tankers on average every year.
Over the decades many other workers have been maimed, and some have become ill due to the effects of carcinogenic chemicals. However, shipbreaking officials say the death rate was much higher during the initial stage of the Bangladesh shipbreaking industry in the early 1980s, and awareness, precautions and training have subsequently reduced casualties.
As a precaution every scrapped oil-tanker must sail to the yard from the port of origin with empty and open reservoirs, so lingering chemicals and residues get neutralised naturally through ventilation before docking, said a shipbreaker who declined to be named.
Explosions on scrapped oil-tankers were responsible for many of the fatalities in the business's early days. More common recently are deaths from accidental falls or blows from metal pieces as ships are torn apart. The heat of cutter flames and constant banging as hammers strike steel can also cause physical and mental problems.
"Besides accidents, shipbreaking workers are prone to many diseases including cancer, ulceration, sterility and deafness," Akhtar Hossain Chowdhury, a teacher of dermatology in the Chittagong Medical College Hospital, told Reuters.
"We risk our lives here only to support our families, because hazard-free regular employment is not easily available," said Mohammad Malek, a shipbreaking worker at a yard at Kadamrasul, near the country's main Chittagong port some 270 km (169 miles) south-east of the capital Dhaka.
"For every 12 hours of work contractors pay each of us 300 taka ($4.38)," barely sufficient to meet daily needs, said Malek. The workers use primitive hammers, axes and acetylene flames to extract some 1.8 million tonnes of steel per annum, against Bangladesh's needs of 3.0 million tonnes.
The rest of its demand is met by steel imports. "As the industry is vital for us we have taken steps to reduce mishaps, by imparting training and creating awareness among employers and workers," said Captain A.K.M. Shafiqullah, Director-General of Bangladesh's Department of Shipping. The department is the leading authority issuing permission for importing, beaching and dismantling scrapped ships.
Bangladesh, which has no iron ore, prefers the metal from the ships as prices of steel billets rose to $1,000 a tonne recently in the world market, up 40 percent over the last one year. Though shipbreaking and other similarly hazardous work is banned in the West, companies based there still send disabled ships to poor countries like Bangladesh for scrapping and for recycling of parts.