10 Oct
2006 - 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 this
week, 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 TBT’s 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.”
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.
Anthony Field, Deputy Head of Press
