Toxic Hydrogen Sulphide Leak Kills 9 Workers At Bangladesh’s Sitakunda Ship Recycling Yard

A toxic gas leak at a ship recycling yard in Sitakunda, Chattogram, in Bangladesh has claimed the lives of 9 workers and exposed regulatory blind spots in the country’s ship-dismantling sector.

The disaster happened at Ferdous Steel’s Yard, around 9:00 am on Friday, aboard the 30,770-ton scrap vessel MT Rasi. The ship was earlier known as HS Ras Laffan and was used to transport LNG.

According to eyewitnesses, workers came to cut the ship’s LNG tank, and around 8:30 am, just 10 minutes after cutting operations began around the tank at the ship’s base, lethal hydrogen sulphide gas swept through the compartment.

Two workers collapsed, and their colleagues and a safety officer who ran into the space to save them succumbed one after the other because of the toxic fumes.

The incident happened even though the ship had received a formal clearance from the Bangladesh Ship Recycling Board (BSRB) and also safety certifications from 4 government bodies: the Department of Environment, Department of Explosives, Fire Service and Civil Defence, and the Marine Academy Chattogram.

The tragic incident raised questions over whether proper inspection to check the presence of the toxic gas had been done and if safety procedures had been followed to declare the area safe.

Though inspections were conducted, it was later found that the teams never came down into the ship’s lower cofferdams due to the risks and relied on mirrors and reflectors, which they operated from the top deck.

Additionally, regulatory agencies in the country do not have proper equipment needed to detect hidden gas reservoirs trapped within a ship’s superstructure.

Lawyers from the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association said that cash buyers use fake safety reports that hide toxic hazards just to get ship import permits.

BSRB officials also cited yard operator negligence, noting that workers failed to perform mandatory gas detector tests before entering the space.

The Ministry of Industries, Chattogram district administration, and the BSRB have set up three inquiry committees to investigate the operational negligence and duty failures which led to the accident.

According to Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies data, this accident increases the shipbreaking death toll to 149 since 2015, casting a shadow over safety enforcement following the entry into force of the Hong Kong Convention.