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Time
to ban toxic boat paint pollution
London, UK Member countries of the
International Maritime Organization (IMO) are perpetuating pollution from the Arctic to Antarctica that is contaminating wildlife
and entering our food chain, says WWF.
During the IMO meeting,
the global conservation organization is calling on member countries to ratify
their own five-year-old legislation to bring an end to this senseless
pollution.
In particular, WWF is submitting a paper to the IMO meeting on Tributyltin
(TBT) pollution on a global scale. It shows the impacts on mussels, oysters,
clams, abalone and gastropods, as well as high contamination of a range of
other marine animals such as skipjack tuna and harbour porpoise.
This is a scandal the world should be ashamed of, said Dr Simon Walmsley,
Head of WWF-UK's Marine Programme. Forty years after TBTs 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.
TBT was widely used in anti-fouling paints to
prevent marine
organisms from sticking to the hulls of boats and ships.
Only 17 out of 166
member countries of the 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.
"This is the most toxic chemical ever deliberately released into the
marine environment and there is no excuse for using it," Dr Walmsley
added.
A recent WWF report, Chain of
Contamination: the Food Link, revealed that TBT and its derivatives
were found contaminating foods from around Europe. TBT was widely used in
anti-fouling paints to prevent marine organisms from sticking to the hulls of
boats and ships. However, the negative impacts of TBT, first suspected in the
late 1960s, has been shown to change the sex of dog whelks as it is an
endocrine disrupting chemical, has caused oyster crops failures in France, and
has closed shell fish farms. It contaminates wildlife in the open ocean as well
as in coastal waters.
However, by 2008, EU
legislation will ban the use of TBT on EU-flagged vessels and any ship painted
with TBT will be refused entry to EU ports.
END NOTES:
The International
Maritime Organization (IMO) is a United Nations agency that promotes
cooperation among governments and the shipping industry to improve maritime
safety and to prevent marine pollution.
Seventeen IMO member
countries have agreed to the TBT legislation. These are: Antigua & Barbuda, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Japan, Latvia, Luxembourg, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Romania, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Spain, Sweden, Tuvala and Mexico. The four leading paint
companies who are not using TBT are: International Paints, Hempel, Jotun and
Chugoku.
For further information:
Anthony Field, Deputy Head of Press
WWF-UK
Tel: +44 1483 412379
Email: afield@wwf.org.uk
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