The smoke billowing from the Wonder of the Seas appears not unlike the pollution we have seen from other large cruise ships, like the Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas, which was videotaped in 2019 belching smoke while leaving the port of St. Bunker fuel is the nastiest and most toxic fuel you can use. But this fuel is the cornerstone of the cruise industry. It should be considered to be a public nuisance and banned as such. No one reading this article would burn bunker fuel in their house, or subject their neighbors to this toxic pollutant. HFO is contaminated with several different compounds including sulfur and nitrogen, which makes HFO emissions far more toxic compared to low sulfur fuels.īunker fuel cannot be used without incombustible particles flying all over the place – not unlike burning a tire – with the residue burrowing deep into the mucous membranes of your lungs. HFO has tar-like consistency which results from the residue of crude oil distillation. Heavy fuel oil (HFO), sometimes referred to as bunker fuel, has historically been a low cost favorite of cruise ships. The pollutants from ship engines exhaust gases include sulfur oxides (SOx) as well as non-combustible particulate matter and black carbon. G7MQIvMPiw- James (Jim) Walker February 21, 2023Ĭruise ships are a major source of air pollution which causes and/or contributes to a wide range of serious health problems such as respiratory ailments, lung disease, cancer and premature deaths. Even if what we are seeing from Wonder of the Seas is water vapor & not smoke (or combination of both), #cruise ship is creating vast quantities of toxic sludge (carbon, sulfur oxide & non-combustible particles from bunker fuel) discharged as waste water. Passengers, crew, & port communities are all exposed to this & other toxins/carcinogens.” “Particulate matter is the #1 cause of environmental-related early death. One environmentally aware Twitter user which I follow, Seattle Cruise Control, retweeted my posting and added the fact that: I posted the image on our Cruise Law Twitter feed. Of course, I readily agreed to keep the crew member’s identity anonymous, failing which the employee would certainly be fired. If the crew member articulated his concerns to a supervisor, the ship employee faced the likely prospect of being ignored with a distinct chance of being punished or, at a minimum, simply told to do the job or quit and go home. I believe this must be solved.”įaced with this disturbing information, I immediately realized that this crew member had few options to resolve the employee’s predicament of working under such hazardous conditions. Only concern of officers is to have ship appear to be clean the only problem they see is soot going on guests clothes. Especially on crew as we are constantly exposed to this and are concerned with long term effects. Environmental officers are ignoring health impacts on guests & crew. It is cleaned by us employees just with water & without any PPE (personal protective equipment). Soot is coming on our skin and into some colleagues eyes as it dropping down without any control. At least 2 times a week, even more soot is taking place all over open decks especially on aft areas. Working on open deck, I’m exposed to this constantly. “This photo of black soot is taken on open deck of the Wonder of the Seas cruise ship. Today, a Royal Caribbean crew member sent me a photograph of the soot-stained deck of the Wonder of the Seas with the following comments:
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