EDF Applauds Historic Action To Protect North Americans From Global Shipping Pollution

Environmental Defense Fund praised the international decision strengthening air pollution standards for ships traveling near North American coastlines. Action taken by the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Marine Environment Protection Committee gives final approval to a joint application from the U.S. and Canada for the designation of an Emission Control Area (ECA) that would extend 200 nautical miles off of their respective coastlines.

"By making the case to clean up these big ships, the United States charted a course for cleaner air and healthier communities," said Environmental Defense Fund Senior Scientist Ramon Alvarez. "The dangerous air pollution from these floating smokestacks is a serious health threat to tens of millions of Americans who live and work in port cities."

This ECA provides the strongest clean air standards available under international law, slashing ozone-forming and particulate pollution from oceangoing vessels and saving up to 14,000 lives a year by 2020. The new regulations will dramatically improve fuel quality and reduce smog-forming oxides of nitrogen for all ocean-going ships entering the designated ECA.

The container ships, tankers and other large sea-going vessels that dock at more than 100 U.S. port cities currently burn low grade "residual fuel" or "bunker fuel" that is a major source of air pollution. This residual fuel contains sulfur levels 1,800 times greater than U.S. law allows for other diesel engines (about 27,000 parts per million (ppm) of sulfur).

In the U.S.-Canada ECA, the sulfur in fuel will be limited to 10,000 ppm starting in 2012 and then to 1,000 ppm in 2015. Most ship engines that are designed to run on bunker fuel are also capable of burning this cleaner fuel, so no significant ship changes or upgrades will be necessary.

Within an ECA, ships must also achieve an 80 percent reduction in smog-forming oxides of nitrogen starting in 2016. EPA air quality analyses show the pollution reductions resulting from the ECA will reduce exposure to lethal particulate pollution for millions of Americans.
A study by two leading researchers on shipping pollution, Corbett and Winebrake, shows shipping-related particulate matter emissions contribute to approximately 60,000 global deaths annually, with impacts concentrated in coastal regions on major trade routes.

Ocean-going ships contribute to unhealthy air quality across the United States. According to EPA, in 2001, these large ships emitted approximately:

•745,000 tons of smog-forming oxides of nitrogen (NOx), a precursor to ground-level ozone and lethal particulate pollution. Ozone can aggravate asthma and decrease lung function in addition to other health effects and particulate is associated with early death;

•450,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2), a key contributor to acid rain that can also be transformed into lethal particulate pollution; and

•54,000 tons of fine particulates (PM2.5), microscopic sized particles, which can be breathed deep into the lungs, bypassing the body's defense systems. They are implicated in thousands of premature deaths each year and can aggravate chronic respiratory ailments like asthma.
Government officials estimate that foreign-flagged vessels make up 90 percent of the ship calls on U.S. ports. Ocean-going ships are also responsible for about 3 percent of the world's total greenhouse gas pollution.

The U.S. submitted its application in March 2009 – asking for the most rigorous clean air standards authorized under international law to apply to ocean-going ships calling on U.S. ports – and won technical approval of its request at the July 2009 meeting of the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee.

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