Ship emissions seen causing 60,000 deaths a year

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSPEK34163320071107

BEIJING (Reuters) - Emissions from ocean-going ships are responsible for about 60,000 deaths a year from heart and lung-related cancers, according to research published on Wednesday that calls for tougher fuel standards.

Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong, three of the world's five busiest ports, were likely to suffer disproportionate impacts from ship-related emissions, said the study, published in Environmental Science and Technology, a journal of the American Chemical Society.

"For a long time there's been this perception that ship emissions are out there in the ocean and they don't really affect anyone on land and I think this study shows that this is clearly false," said David Marshall, senior counsel at the Boston-based Clean Air Task Force, which co-commissioned the study.

"They do matter and they do need to be controlled.

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given the crap that most ships get for fuel these days. Engine technology has come a long way toward increasing combustion efficiency, but the fuel quality has been steadily worsening.