Marine Pollution – A short review
There is a more need for stringent requirement for pollution. And we always don’t know whether the products shipped in the vessel does not cause harm to the marine environment. There is a need for packaging standards for the inventories shipping into the vessel is required, since it accounts for certain amount of garbage accumulation.
RESOLUTION MEPC.219 (63) is being well received by every individual since its brings great contribution to marine pollution.
The point 1.76 in the resolution states that
“1.7.6 -The ship’s record should contain evidence provided by the producer of the cleaningagent or additive that the product meets the criteria for not being harmful to the marine environment. To provide an assurance of compliance, a dated and signed statement to this effect from the product supplier would be adequate for the purposes of a ship’s record.This might form part of a Safety Data Sheet or be a stand-alone document but this should beleft to the discretion of the producer concerned”
Varieties of chemicals, cleaning agents and other products mixed up in gray waters, dish water and other operational wastes which are discharged into the sea. Even soaps, shampoo,washing powder, toilet cleaners etc. can cause mild harm to the marine environment. There are many manufacturers of chemicals, cleansing agent and other products which may cause slightest harm for the marine life is manufactured around the globe which is not channelized for the marine purpose. Since the vessels sails various part of the globe , often these products cover and other information is not in the English language. This cause the discomfort for the ship’s personnel to find out whether the product does not cause harmful for the marine environment. And also I have never seen the supplier or the ship chandelier giving compliance certificate for the product supplied.
For solving these above problems, I would like to create “Marine standardization product” similar to “International Organization for Standardization”. MSP solely concentrates on marine related environmental whereas ISO 14000 focuses on general environmental management. Each product supplied to the vessel should have MSP seals on the product and it regulates the marine products and contents in it. For eg., it regulates how much percentage of substance can be present, which substance can present. It also continues with the work of R&D regarding substance causes even mild harmful for the marine environment. The manufacturer complies with the regulation gets the MSP certification. MSP also regulates the packaging standards for marine products shipped into the vessel which prevents from unwanted harmful packaging materials like plastics accumulating in the ship and also regulates less packaging material in order to avoid excessive garbage accumulation. Thus this certification system reduces the ambiguity in the system and everybody knows that all products shipping into the vessel is free from harmful substance. Also it reduces the work load to the ship personnel and surveyors for maintaining and checking the records of the products.
Deepak sekar 