Workers in Ctg ship breaking industry face health hazards

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CHITTAGONG, Oct 31 (BSS): More than 50,000 people are working in ship breaking industry in Chittagong with serious health hazards because of the poisonous waste released from old ships.
The workers and people in adjoining areas are being attacked with various diseases frequently.
There are 56 ship-breaking yards on the coast under Sitakunda Upazila. Thousands of adult and adolescent workers are working in the yards amid serious health hazards.
Though they have chosen this hazardous job only to earn their bread, many of them are not physically fit for this hard work. Therefore, incidents of various types of accidents and casualties are frequent in the ship breaking yards. But there is no hospital in this industrial area.
Old ships worth several thousand millions of taka are purchased and brought to Sitakunda every year for breaking and more than two 0.2 million people are involved directly and indirectly with this industry.
The labourers, local people and environment and human rights activists have long been demanding a hospital in the area, but there has been no initiative to this end.
If any worker is injured or anyone falls sick, the patient is taken to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, which is 30 kilometres away from the ship-breaking yards.
Concerned people said every ship brought for breaking in the yard is harmful for the environment as all the ships contain poisonous chemicals.