Explosion at Chittagong shipbreaking yard injures eight

Eight employees had to be hospitalized following an explosion Shital Enterprise scrap yard in Chittagong, Bangladesh last week.    An explosion at the Shital Enterprise shipbreaking yard in Chittagong, Bangladesh last week injured eight workers, according to various media reports.
   The employees – Al Amin (30), Nadim (30), Moklesul (30), Shahjahan (40), Khokon (25), Abdul Mannan (24), Abdur Rouf (25), and Kamal Pasha (32) – were admitted at local hospitals and treated for burns and other injuries following the explosion, which was caused by a leak in a gas cylinder in a vessel being broken down for scrap.
   Conflicting reports have emerged as to what sparked the blast, however, with local news outlets reporting workers lit a fire in a dark area of the vessel in order to see, while the shipyard has said a worker lit a cigarette, a violation of safety procedures. Local police are continuing to investigate the cause of the incident.
   Shipbreaking can be quite dangerous, and the Chittagong scrap yard, the largest in the world with over 200,000 employees, is no exception. A history of accidents and lack of protection for workers caused ocean carriers Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk to stop using the yard back in 2014 despite higher prices elsewhere.
   According to DhakaTribue, 52 percent of all large ships are scrapped in Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Ship Breakers Association says there are 40 ship-breaking yards run by about 165 companies currently in operation on a 25-km strip of Sitakunda upazila in Chittagong.
   Approximately two million tons of large oil tanker, cargo and passenger vessels are dismantled every year in Bangladesh.