Toxic gas kills four workers; renews calls for greater controls
Four Bangladeshi workers have died and two others are ill after inhaling toxic gas while dismantling a vessel at a ship breaking yard, police say.
The workers were inside a scrapped vessel at a yard in the Chittagong region on Sunday evening. Their deaths come just days after two other labourers were killed in a similar incident at another yard.
Environmentalists say Bangladesh has become a dumping ground for ageing ships with hazardous materials. Vessels being dismantled often contain dangerous gases or asbestos. Many yards are poorly equipped and have inadequate safety standards, campaigners say.
“All six fell unconscious while working inside a compartment of a scrap vessel which was brought into the yard about a week ago,” senior police official Nur Muhammad Bepari told the BBC from the town of Sitakunda.
Read more here.
