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Concerns on health and safety as new fatigue study launched
26 June 2009
A recent focus on health and safety for seafarers comes as a new study into the dangers of fatigue for seafarers has been launched.
The continuing risks to seafarers was highlighted by Efthimios Mitropoulos, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organisation, at a recent meeting of IMO’s technical co-operation committee. He reported that 1,930 seafarers had lost their lives at sea in 2008, and that more than 800 seafarers had already died in 2009 so far.
He said that several casualties resulted from “failure to implement basic safety standards.”
Concerns about risks to seafarers' lives were also raised by the Anglo-Dutch union Nautilus International, which pointed to the dangers of confined spaces on ships. According to data from marine accident investigators in 18 flag states, there had been 120 deaths and 123 injuries in confined spaces since 1991. Enclosed spaces were still one of the most common causes of work-related seafarer death, said the union's assistant general secretary Marcel van den Broek, speaking at the annual assembly of the International Federation of Shipmasters’ Associations in Rio de Janeiro.
One of the major risks facing seafarers is that of fatigue, and this will be the focus of a new research project funded by the European Commission. The €3.8 million (US$5.3 million), 30-month Project Horizon will look at how fatigue affects watchkeepers and impacts on decision-making and performance.
The project involves academics in the UK and Sweden, as well as the European Community Shipowners’ Associations, the European Transport Workers’ Federation, the European Harbour Masters Committee, the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners, the Standard P&I Club, and the UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch and Maritime and Coastguard Agency.
The project aims to lead to effective measures to improve seafarers' health and safety, including a fatigue management toolkit, as well as recommendations for improving work patterns at sea.
Related pages:
Fatigue
Inside the Issues: Fatigue
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