Asbestos Related Issues Impacting Bangladesh Shipbreaking Laborers: Any Input in Advance?

I have “finally” completed my outline, organized an Abstract, and am working towards drafting the research article discussing the impact of asbestos on shipbreaking laborers in Bangladesh, including a focus on whether jurisdiction for some of the health-related issues should be available in the United States. If anyone reading this blog is so inclined and has input, please email me at TheAsbestosBlog@gmail.com with your suggestions.

I would very much like to hear from everyone potentially involved, including the shipbreaking laborers, the company owners, the middlemen who hire the contract labor, relevant Non-Governmental Organizations, governmental officials, the local doctors, other professionals, and those otherwise in the industry who would like their thoughts to be thoughtfully considered and discussed in the article. I have a number of professionals and academics helping me and, I find, collaboration and dialog on this type of issue is invaluable.

The Abstract for the article is the following. I posted a draft of it a couple of weeks ago:

As shipbreaking (recycling an ocean going vessel or platform at the end of its useful life) has migrated from developed countries to developing countries such as Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan over the last two decades, asbestos exposure and other health-related issues affecting the shipbreaking laborers in those developing countries have become significant issues.  In at least one scholarly publication, shipbreaking on the beaches of Bangladesh has been called the most dangerous occupation in the world. 

This research paper, using both a world-systems analysis in combination with the normalization of deviance concept, examines the historical basis for the development of asbestos-related health hazards arising from shipbreaking operations in Bangladesh. Applying the above mentioned historiographical approach, the analysis focuses on the asbestos-caused health hazards experienced by the shipbreaking laborers, their families, and others in the area that arise from the asbestos fibers liberated from the vessels during the shipbreaking process.  The analysis then identifies and discusses the practical limitations that prevent those affected from pursuing any remedies, either globally or under Bangladesh political system and law, to compensate for their developing asbestosis, lung cancer, mesothelioma, or other asbestos-related illnesses. 

After setting the foundation for the significant risk of injury combined with the lack of remedies available to those most vulnerable, this paper then examines whether a right of action should exist that can be brought in a more meaningful platform such as that used in the United States. This paper analyzes whether such a right of action is justified based on concepts such as illegality, justice, morality, ethics, and righteousness given (1) the contacts that the United States has with shipbuilding, shipping, and shipbreaking, (2) the fact that ships were originally manufactured in the United States that have then been scrapped in Bangladesh, and (3) the financial benefits earned by United States based companies that are ancillary to facilitating the global use of the vessels.  This analysis also identifies the difficulties in making such claims.  Some of these difficulties arise in Bangladesh, such as the culture, the language, and the lack of money and technology available to identify the involved diseases.  Other difficulties arise in the United States, including the limitations of the trust payouts, jurisdictional restraints of the court system, and the difficulty of determining information identifying the manufacturers and suppliers of the asbestos installed on the vessels during their construction. 

The paper does not discuss the exact mechanisms for providing jurisdiction such as the violation of any specific treaties, conventions or laws.  The author’s intent is that once the reader agrees that United States jurisdiction should be appropriate under the concepts discussed in this article for at least some of the asbestos-related claims, then the legal mechanisms to facilitate those claims will be the subject of further analysis.

Key Words: Shipbreaking, Asbestos, Normalization of Deviance, World-Systems, Bangladesh, Asbestos Bankruptcy Trusts.

Thanks. Marty