MediaVigil, Journal of Global Communications and Justice

Ship headed for Alang yard HAGERSTOWN, Md. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the Maryland-based owner of an old ocean liner with components containing toxic PCBs illegally sent the ship overseas for recycling. Cumberland-based Global Shipping LLC and an affiliated trading company, Global Marketing Systems Inc., denied the allegations. The companies, cited by the EPA as one entity, could face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for failing to properly dispose of the chemicals in violation of the Toxic Substances Control Act. "I don't think as far as we're concerned that any laws have been broken," said Anil Sharma, president of Global Marketing Systems and a shareholder in Global Shipping, which owns the vessel. Global Marketing's primary business is ship recycling, Sharma said. The case highlights the practice of sending aged ships to "ship breaking" yards in South Asia, where critics say unprotected workers are endangered by exposu...

PCBs are very toxic chemical compounds. They are considered probable human carcinogen or cancer causing substance by institutions such as the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Due to the danger they pose to people and the environment PCBs were placed in the initial list of "dirty dozen" toxic chemicals that the international community had agreed to restrict and ultimately eliminate under the 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The treaty, which the Philippine Senate ratified in 2004, imposed a ban on the production of PCBs and gave countries until 2025 to eliminate the use of PCBs in certain equipment. PCBs are thin, light-colored liquids to yellow or black waxy solids used as heat exchange fluids in electric transformers or capacitors, and as plasticizers in paints, plastics, and rubber products and as additives in dyes, pigments, sealants and carbonless copy paper. These extreme...

NEW YORK: Is another "toxic time bomb" headed for a ship-breaking yard in India? The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has served notice on its owner for not obtaining the mandatory clearances. Rights groups say this is not enough. Pulled by a tug, the SS Oceanic (formerly SS Independence), an aged 682-foot ocean liner, sailed from San Francisco Feb 8, passed Hawaii and Guam and is now believed to be near Saipan, capital of the North Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific. According to the Basel Action Network (BAN) and Save the Classic Liners Campaign that tipped off the EPA, the ship's owner, Global Marketing Services (GMS), "routinely buys ships from all over the world and sends them to the notorious breaking beaches of Bangladesh, Pakistan and India". BAN estimates the ship is loaded with 210 tonnes of toxic polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contaminated material and 250 tonnes of asbestos. More than 1.5 billion pounds of PCBs were manufactured in the US...

CUMBERLAND ­ An attorney for Global Shipping and Global Marketing Systems said Friday the company intends to “cooperate fully” in regard to a federal complaint filed this week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). Robert Basseches said he has advised GMS owner Anil Sharma and all employees of the Cumberland-based companies from commenting on the complaint, which alleges a violation of the Toxic Substances Control Act. Specifically, the EPA said that a ship owned by GMS, the MV Oceanic, has PCB-containing materials on board. PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were used in coolants, insulating fluids and as stabilizing additives in flexible PVC coatings of electrical wiring and electrical components. The U.S. banned the use of PCBs in 1978. “Federal law prohibits companies from exporting PCBs, including those in ships, that are sent overseas to be scrapped,” Rich Vaille, associate director for waste program enforcement in the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region, said in a news...

A looming spike in retired vessels could send tons of PCBs and asbestos to South Asia's 'ship breakers' before new international regulations take hold. By Mark Clayton Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, an empty passenger liner is being towed on her last voyage – bound possibly for one of the infamous "ship-breaking" beach­­es of Asia to be cut up and sold as scrap. While the 682-foot SS Oceanic might still survive as a floating hotel or casino, her voyage is controversial. That's because the ship left San Francisco last month laden with an estimated 460 tons of asbestos and toxic PCBs embedded in its electrical and engine-room systems. Just how dangerous that 58-year-old vessel would be if it is scrapped on a beach in the developing world, and how it managed to leave US waters despite laws prohibiting PCB waste exports are questions the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is investigating. But the Oceanic case also highlights a serious regulatory failure, o...

Government is Allowing Toxic Traders to "Get Away with It" Saipan/Seattle/New Delhi, March 20, 2008– Following a tip from the Basel Action Network (BAN) and Save the Classic Liners Campaign, the US Environmental Protection Agency has filed suit against a well known "cashbuyer" that routinely buys ships from all over the world and sends them to the notorious breaking beaches of Bangladesh, Pakistan and India for exporting the aged 682 foot ocean liner known as the SS Oceanic (previously known as the SS Independence). But the activist groups were appalled that the EPA is simply slapping a fine on the perpetrators and is not taking action to halt the violation and send the ship back to the US. According to BAN the ship is a "toxic time bomb" for the laborers on the infamous shipbreaking beaches of South Asia as the ship is loaded with an estimated 210 tons of toxic polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contaminated material and an estimated 250 tons of asbesto...

Government is Allowing Toxic Traders to "Get Away with It" Saipan/Seattle/New Delhi, March 20, 2008– Following a tip from the Basel Action Network (BAN) and Save the Classic Liners Campaign, the US Environmental Protection Agency has filed suit against a well known "cashbuyer" that routinely buys ships from all over the world and sends them to the notorious breaking beaches of Bangladesh, Pakistan and India for exporting the aged 682 foot ocean liner known as the SS Oceanic (previously known as the SS Independence). But the activist groups were appalled that the EPA is simply slapping a fine on the perpetrators and is not taking action to halt the violation and send the ship back to the US. According to BAN the ship is a "toxic time bomb" for the laborers on the infamous shipbreaking beaches of South Asia as the ship is loaded with an estimated 210 tons of toxic polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contaminated material and an estimated 250 tons of asbesto...