Ship dismantling activities may cause pollution and damage to human and environmental health by spreading persistent organic pollutants (POPs). This risk is highlighted by a study by Hale Demirtepe, associate professor at the Izmir Institute of Technology, which found high POP levels in sediments off Turkey related to activities of local ship dismantling establishments.

The study, reported by the European Commission, recalls that POPs are organic chemicals containing bonded carbon hydrogen, including pesticides and by-products of the which persist in the environment, polluting ecosystems and threatening human and environmental health and can accumulate in organisms and be transported by land, air or sea expanding their possible area of impact. Also, remember that in 1995 the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) called for global action against these chemicals which was initiated earlier in the context of the The Aarhus Protocol which has been in force since 1998 and then through the Stockholm Convention (2004), which limit the methods of production, use, management and disposal of POP.

The study analyzes how recovery activities steel from ship components during ship dismantling, involving the cutting and removal of potentially loads of toxic compounds such as flame retardants, for example cables, rubber gaskets, vinyl and painted panels, can contribute to environmental contamination by POPs. It should be remembered, In addition, a 2019 study on the surface sediments of the coastal area of Bangladesh (Habibullah-Al-Mamun, Kawser Ahmed, Saiful Islam, Masahiro Tokumura and Shigeki Masunaga) suggested that An average-sized ship could hold about 250 kilograms of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are synthetic POPs and classified as carcinogens.

Professor Demirtepe's study focuses on a 30-kilometer stretch of coastline in Aliaga, Turkey western area, where some of the largest shipyards in the ship dismantling of the world, but it is also subject to a intense ship traffic and plant activities petroleum, petrochemical, steel and power plants terrestrial ones. The samples collected revealed that sediments contained significant concentrations of PCBs and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), up to 4,750 and 5,053 respectively nanograms per gram of sediment. Observing that it is the first once PBDEs are identified in the sediments of the ship demolition, the Turkish researcher specified that in the most sediment samples, the concentrations of Both types of chemicals exceeded the established limits by the Canadian Environmental Protection Act of 1999. In addition, the ecological risk assessment based on technical guidelines has shown that the levels of certain chemicals posed moderate to high risks to ecosystems benthic plants, i.e. those that live on the ocean floor or in proximity to the seabed. The sediments of Nemrut Bay, located in the area examined and characterized by an activity industrial land, presented higher concentrations than those in the Bay of Aliaga. The sediments of the shipbreaking yards had the highest concentrations, while sediments close to the beaches the lowest. PCBs with a higher chlorine content were associated with ship dismantling activities, while PCBs and PBDEs with a lower chlorine content were associated with industrial land-based emissions and runoff urban.

The study finds that of ship dismantling is an activity that is still little examined in terms of contamination from POPs, while it should be carefully monitored to mitigate and prevent environmental damage. It also points out that the materials of ships should be kept under control during the dismantling and contaminated ones should be disposed of with greater attention.