Market Globalisation Is An Indirect Threat To Our Lungs - Fumigation Of Freight Containers Under Scrutiny

Main Category: Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 07 Oct 2008 - 3:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Results announced to the 18th Annual Congress of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) by a German team point to previously unrecognised risks arising from market globalisation. Millions of freight containers, which criss-cross the planet and are disinfected using toxic chemicals, could represent a real risk to the health not only of freight workers, but of the general public too.

The growth of international trade has led to an explosion in the number of freight containers travelling the world. In response, many countries have introduced very strict disinfection measures for freight sent to their ports in order to prevent the entry of unwanted animal or plant species and dangerous microorganisms.

One of the commonest requirements is for containers to be fumigated using toxic gases, including pesticides.

These substances represent a risk to human health, both that of the port staff, who are in the front line, and that of the end users of the imported items.

So a German research team based in Hamburg, where one of northern Europe's largest ports receives hundreds of thousands of containers each year, decided to examine the risk arising from such procedures, designed, paradoxically, to protect the population.

Lygia Therese Budnik and Xaver Baur (Central Institute for Occupational and Maritime Medicine, University of Hamburg, Germany) conducted a series of tests in the ports of Hamburg and Rotterdam (Netherlands). The results have just been revealed to the ERS Congress.

In particular, they tested over two and a half years the quality of the air sampled from 200 containers in Hamburg port and 300 in Rotterdam, focusing on the toxic substances most commonly used for fumigation. Prior to that, they had developed (using some 2100 containers in Hamburg port) extremely sensitive measurement methods that made it possible to detect a concentration as low as one part per billion (ppb) of a toxic substance.

One container in five exceeds limits

The results revealed to the Congress in Berlin are truly alarming. These chemicals are dangerous to the health not only of dockers and other port staff involved in unloading imported goods, but also that of end consumers.

Budnik and Baur found that fumigation (or toxic industrial chemicals) now appears to affect almost all containers used in international trade (97%) and that the gases released are far from harmless.

The fumigation gases most frequently measured in containers were 1-2-dichloroethane (representing almost one - third in Hamburg and nearly half in Rotterdam) and bromomethane (22-28%).

Nearly one-fifth of containers (19%) had levels of 1-2-dichloroethane exceeding the permitted exposure level, and just over one-tenth of containers (11%) exceeded the limit for bromomethane.

And there is worse to come, Budnik and Baur told the Congress. "These fumigants and the other toxic products present in the air within the containers, such as benzene and toluene, also contaminate the transported goods, penetrating into them and settling there. They may have a half-life of a month or even several months, and thus represent an additional threat" "What is more, there were no warning signs on any of the containers", added Budnik. And, indeed, the results presented to the Congress show that samples of foodstuffs, mattresses, electronic goods, clothing and, in particular, shoes were contaminated with both fumigants and other chemicals.

Bad for our lungs

The health consequences of these substances are evident, according to the German team. In addition to potentially causing skin allergies, they can irritate the nasal lining and the throat, even in low doses. They can also lead to dyspnea and cause asthma attacks.

And higher concentrations can lead to pneumonia and even pulmonary oedema, the Congress was told.

For port workers, regularly in contact with these gases, of which some are believed to be carcinogens (bromomethane, 1-2-dichloroethane and benzene), the risks arising from cumulative exposure must also be taken into account.

But end users - which means you and me - are not spared either, especially when in contact with products impregnated by toxic substances. The typical case presented to the Congress by the German team involves container-loads of shoes, particularly from China, with an alarming level of benzene, a carcinogenic substance prohibited in most Western countries. The emissions from the shoes when unloaded are sometimes even twice as high as the levels in the container itself!

"The next products to be subjected to systematic fumigation will probably be furniture, various household objects and even some foodstuffs", Baur warned.

In the meantime, lessons must be learned from this study, according to the Hamburg team. Budnik and Baur insist that measuring levels of fumigation gases is not enough, and that monitoring must be extended to all other toxic substances.

Especially since they are often colourless and odourless, and dangerous even at low concentrations.

European Respiratory Society

European Respiratory Society Annual Congress