Monday, October 23, 2006

 

Toxic boat paint pollution must stop

Member countries of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), including the UK, are perpetuating pollution from the Arctic to Antarctic that is contaminating wildlife and entering our food chain.

Enviromental group WWF has submitted a paper to the IMO showing the impact of Tributyltin (TBT) pollution. Their head of WWF-UK Marine Programme, Dr Simon Walmsley, says
"This is a scandal the world should be ashamed of. Forty years after TBT's negative impacts were first identified and five years after the legislation to ban it was agreed TBT is still used, indiscriminately polluting global marine life and our food chain."

Only 17 out of 166 member countries of IMO have ratified the legislation. However, the majority of the shipping industry supports a ban, with only the unscrupulous operators still using it. The leading paint companies have stopped producing TBT since 2003 and market commercially viable alternatives instead.

Dr. Simon Walmsley, continued: "Countries who have not signed up - including the UK - should be ashamed. This is the most toxic chemical ever deliberately released into the marine environment and there is no excuse for using it."


--
Subscribe to SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011) for more free news, articles, diving reports and marine life descriptions - http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/news.html



Labels:


Comments: Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?