Hazardous Goods List

From 31. Dec. 2020 all ships calling on European ports will be required to have a list of all hazardous goods carried on board as store:


Not everybody is happy with that.

I suppose to some that would simply be the Crew List…

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Maybe on your side of the pond?

I once worked on a ship that was about to get sold, the buyer sent someone to the ship to take hundreds of samples from all over the ship that were going to get sent away and analysed for asbestos, I was talking to the guy taking the samples and he said that there are so many ships he had sampled that were certified as asbestos free, but actually had a lot of asbestos in them after the samples get analysed, he said it is particularly a problem with ships built in China.

That is true, or was true. Chinese yards had a problem with packings supplied with Asbestos Free certificates actually had asbestos in them. As far as I know they have overcome the problem.

BTW: One of the places that has the toughest asbestos regulations for ships and rigs is Australia. At the same time they were mining asbestos for export until 2003:
Australia's History of Mesothelioma | Facts You Need to Know.

BTW: A lot of older buildings (incl. schools and medical facilities) in Australia has asbestos on the roofs, in the walls and even water pipes.

PS> Asbestos mining is banned in the US, but import and use of asbestos is not:

The long suffering master, having reviewed the multiple documents required for port entry adds another one to the list.
Able seaman Staines those fillings you have have got mercury in them.

I could be wrong but this seems like the kind of inventory that would hardly change for the lifetime of the ship, the ship builders would just have to log what hazardous materials they build into the ship and where, then it would be there for life of the ship for anyone to review. In this case as it’s new legislation the problem seems to be having it completed retrospectively.

Not like some silly inventories you have to continually keep updating for going to some ports in Africa. I’ve worked on some ships where the African port state authorities wanted inventories of almost everything that could move on the ship, when we arrived they went straight to the galley, too many frozen chickens had been declared so they fined us lots of frozen chicken and other food items. Then they went to the paint locker, we declared 20 litres too much paint so they took 6 x 20 litre tins of expensive marine paint. It was legalized theft but there was nothing you could do.

Many thousands of metric tons of the fibrous mineral asbestos were used to wrap the pipes and line the boilers, engines and turbines of the ships needed to carry men and munitions into theatres of war in Europe and Asia. But just as the shipbuilding boom had begun, troubling news about asbestos spread: The inhalation of its microscopic fibres caused workers to fall sick and die.

During World War II, 16.1 million Americans were called to arms. The combat death rate was about 18 per thousand service members. About 4.3 million Americans worked in shipyards during the war. For every thousand wartime shipyard employees, about 14 died of asbestos-related cancer, and an unknown number died of an asbestos disease called asbestosis, or complications from it. During the time of the asbestos tragedy, an average of one American per hour died of workplace exposure to the mineral once prized for its flame-resistant quality. These victims didn’t know they were being poisoned.They were the victims of a cover-up that rivals that of Big Tobacco.

A company I worked for budgeted about $2500 per visit to a port in West Africa.

So I just hand them the Safety Data Sheet binder with all the cleaning chemicals and paints we use?

FML

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I’ve visited West Africa a lot in my career and the port authorities have so many ways to fine the ships.

Sometimes you would get a $1000+ fine for having information they weren’t happy with on the crew lists you submitted to them, if you had a crew members middle name down as an initial instead of their full middle name you’d get fine. e.g. David J. Garcia instead of David James Garcia could get a thousand dollar fine.

You’d get a fine if you had the dates of birth on the crew list in the format of month/day/year or day/month/year depending which way they they felt like having it.

In some ports you would get a few hundred dollar fine if they saw any rat guards had fallen off the ropes at any time. Also some ports would fine you if you don’t lower the port state flag at sunset and rise it at sunrise…

Any food found past the best before day in the dry stores could land a big fine, even if it is the kind of food you get that lasts long after it’s best before date.

That should do, as long as it is up to date and contain ALL hazardous goods on board.

PS> The requirement for a “Hazardous Goods List” has been a requirement in the Offshore Industry for some time, at least in S.E.Asia.

It was a $500 fine for a Jr. instead of JR in Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico one time. Crew list has to be precisely the same as the passport. IIRC the passport has no period after “JR”, have to watch that too…

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