Steamed up over cruise ship fuel

POLLUTION PROTEST

A LEADING art gallery owener says some days he can hardly breathe because of cruise ship pollution.

Euan Hills’ Art Mob Aboriginal art gallery, as well as his Hunter St residence are sited just 200m from Hobart’s international cruise ship terminal and he says he suffers the effects of pollution on calm days when inversion layers cause smoke to hang around.

“I can hardly breathe,’’ he told the Mercury.

“If you live in a toxic environment for long enough it will get you,’’ he said.

Mr Hills’ comments come after an Australian ship emissions expert called for a ban on the burning of low quality bunker oil by cruise ships when they enter the port of Hobart.

The University of Tasmania’s Australian Maritime College researcher Laurie Goldsworthy, who was involved with a ship emissions study in Sydney, which preceded a ban on the burning of bunker oil by ships in Sydney Harbour, said smoke particles generated by bunker oil needed to be analysed more thoroughly before authorities could be confident that their concentrations were, or were not, a danger to public health.

Dr Goldsworthy said the issue was not expected to go away in Hobart once the Federal Government had implemented a ban on high sulphur fuels from 2020, consistent with new international rules.

He said it would still enable cruise ship operators to burn bunker oil in Hobart — with sulphur levels cut from as high as 3.5 per cent to below 0.5 per cent — and that such low grade fuels would continue to produce a cocktail of pollutants, including some sulphur dioxide which triggered respiratory problems.

“It would reduce the problem. It’s difficult to say how much,’’ he said.

“There would still be some sulphur … plus the heavy metal content,” he said.

Dr Goldsworthy said safe limits for bunker oil pollutants, when combined, were still not known.

He said the authorities re- sponsible for Sydney, and many other first-world ports had decided to play it safe by insisting that ships only burn diesel, a much cleaner fuel, while in port and, as the number of cruise ship visits skyrocketed, Hobart should follow.

The Hobart City Council last September called for the State Government to press the Federal Government for such measures, in response to public concerns.

Dr Goldsworthy said it was becoming clearer small areas in the immediate vicinity of ships could be at highest risk.

Mr Hills said he was aware of at least one nearby resident who suffered asthma attacks linked to cruise ship visits, and that the Environmental Protection Authority should move its monitoring equipment from CSIRO wharf to an area closer to the ships.

A State Government spokesman said the Government was maintaining its previous position, to maximise the number, and economic benefits, of cruise ship visits, while waiting for the 2020 changes to kick in.