Ships belch out most of their sulphurous toxins far from land, but they could still be responsible for 60,000 deaths each year
In all the controversy over toxic air pollution from diesel cars, little is heard of a worse source of pollution – shipping. Large ocean-going ships tend to use bunker fuel, the world’s dirtiest diesel fuel – a toxic, tar-like sludge that usually contains 3,500 times more sulphur than the diesel used for cars. And it’s also cheap.
Shipping accounts for 13% of annual sulphur oxide emissions worldwide. A few countries, including the UK, insist that ships in their national waters use more costly low-sulphur fuel. And although new global rules for shipping to cut sulphur pollution are due to come into force in 2020, the sulphur content of shipping fuel will still be 500 times more than road diesel.
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Source: Guardian Climate Change