Brinksman
How hazardous is dismantling a decommissioned ship? It does have dangerous substances like asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls (pcbs) and spent oil. Who should be allowed to engage in shipbreaking? What rules exist to ensure the safety of labour involved in dismantling ships and the environment? A brief recap is essential for clarity.
The 1980s saw a sharp increase in cases of industrialised countries dumping their toxic waste on to developing countries. Though rich countries have better facilities to handle dangerous substances in an "environmentally sound manner', it is far cheaper to dump these in developing countries where regulation and monitoring is almost non-existent. In 1989 was signed the most important international treaty to regulate the global waste trade: the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. It was amended in 1997 to bring in what's called the Basel Ban. This prohibits all movement of hazardous waste from industrialised countries (forming the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, or oecd) to developing (hence, non- oecd) countries.
But there is a catch: this rule applies only to waste meant for