Another fatal accident in Bangladesh has highlighted a risk that can arise before anyone enters an enclosed space, and why the industry must give greater attention to the first opening of long-sealed ballast tanks, H2S awareness and emergency rescue. Dr Anand Hiremath, CEO of the Sustainable Ship and Offshore Recycling Program, writes for Splash.

Ten workers lost their lives during a ship recycling operation in Chattogram on August 14. Whatever the final findings, an outcome of this scale is unacceptable. Chattogram hosts one of the world's largest shipbreaking concentrations, and fatal accidents have long made South Asian yards a focus of global scrutiny of recycling conditions. Statutory investigations will establish the full circumstances. These observations arise from a preliminary technical assessment and do not pre-empt those findings, but they point to a wider safety issue.

The maritime sector has strong controls for enclosed-space entry: atmosphere testing, ventilation, controlled access and emergency arrangements. Enclosed-space fatalities remain among the most persistent killers in shipping despite repeated industry warnings over many years. The Chattogram accident raises a different question: what controls are required before the space is opened at all?

The workers involved in the initial exposure were in an open work area when the bottom of double-bottom ballast tank No 3 on the port side was cut. They were not undertaking a conventional confined-space entry. The hazard originated in an enclosed space, but the exposure occurred outside it.

That distinction is not a defence. It should make us examine whether safety controls begin early enough.

Hydrogen sulphide is heavier than air. If released suddenly from a low point, a dangerous cloud can form close to ground level even in an open atmosphere. H2S is also toxic at concentrations that can deaden the sense of smell, which is why odour is a dangerously unreliable warning sign. Being outside the tank therefore does not necessarily mean natural ventilation will protect workers from a large and rapid release.

The preliminary assessment suggests prolonged biological activity inside a ballast tank may have played an important role. Biofilm can develop and, where seawater remains in a closed environment for a prolonged period, oxygen depletion can create anoxic conditions. Temperature, pH changes and other conditions may contribute to hydrogen sulphide formation.

A ballast tank is not necessarily a static environment. Conditions may change significantly after a space remains closed for many additional months.

By the time of the accident, about 70% of the vessel had been recycled. The engine room and accommodation had been dismantled, and two other ballast tanks had previously been dealt with using the same general method without the same outcome.

That does not lessen the seriousness of the accident or defend any participant. It illustrates a familiar safety problem: repeated success can make a task feel routine even when the conditions behind the next piece of steel are different. The successful opening of one ballast tank cannot become the risk assessment for the next.

The facility had been reviewed by recognised organisations within the developing Hong Kong Convention framework. The Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships was adopted in 2009 and, following ratification by Bangladesh and Liberia, is set to take effect in June 2025, giving these certification arrangements added significance for yards seeking compliant status. Certification remains important, but it cannot replace a task-specific assessment of conditions when work is carried out.

The technical classification of the event is important. It can be described as an uncontrolled release of stored hazardous liquid and its dissolved gas load from a residual enclosed space into an adjacent open work area, during breaching of that space at its lowest point. This was a stored-energy event as much as a toxic-atmosphere event.

Current ship recycling safety architecture is much clearer about controlling entry into an enclosed space than controlling the first breach from outside. Yet opening a space can release its contents and associated hazardous gas directly into the work area.

The first opening of a previously sealed ballast tank, void, cofferdam or similar space should therefore be treated as a high-risk operation, regardless of whether anybody intends to enter it. The safety system must control the breach as well as the entry. That means reassessing long-sealed spaces before opening, considering how conditions may have changed, and ensuring appropriate gas monitoring and exclusion arrangements are in place.

Procedures alone are not enough. Workers, supervisors and safety personnel need to understand that H2S risk is not confined to someone physically entering a tank. A toxic atmosphere can develop rapidly in an adjacent open work area, and smell must never be relied upon as an indication that the area is safe.

The same principle applies to emergency response. In a toxic-gas incident, the instinct to rush to a collapsed colleague can turn one casualty into several within moments. Multiple-fatality enclosed-space and gas incidents across the maritime sector have repeatedly involved would-be rescuers becoming victims themselves.

Rescue cannot depend on improvisation. Where required by the risk assessment, breathing apparatus must be immediately available, trained personnel must be capable of responding, and access to a suspected gas-affected area must be controlled. Regular, realistic rescue drills should test alarm raising, access control, response time and equipment readiness.

Responsibility for specific failures must be determined through the official process. But it would be a mistake to treat this only as an issue concerning one yard, one vessel, one cash buyer, one owner or one certification body.

If a routine operation can produce a hazard that existing risk assessments did not sufficiently anticipate, the lesson belongs to the whole system. As the Hong Kong Convention's requirements take practical effect across recycling yards, how standards address the first cut, not just entry, will be a key measure of whether certification delivers the safety outcomes it promises.

The maritime industry already understands that entering an enclosed space demands strict controls. The lesson from this accident is that those controls may need to begin one step earlier.

Even in an open work area, the danger can come out of the tank.

Source: Splash247