A ship believed to be carrying toxic waste has been deta ined at the Tin Can Island Port in Lagos, the local press reported Friday. The ship, MV Nassville, sailed from Rotterdam, The Netherlands, with a container said to have, among other things, 70 storage (lead) batteries classified as Basel-code A1180 and broken televisions.
Products classified as code A1180 under the Basel Convention on the Control of Trans boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal include electrical waste and electronic assembliesor scrap containing components such as accumulators and other batteries, mercury-switches, glass from cathode-ray tubes and other activated glass and PCB-capacitors, contaminated with constituents such as cadmium, mercury, lead, p olychlorinated biphenyl.
”These hazardous wastes are said to be responsible for a wide range of abnormal health conditions, including congenital heart diseases, cancer, and leukemia,” reported the private Punch newspaper. Nigeria is a signatory to the Basel Convention.
Spokesman for the Nigerian Ports Authority, Mr. Musa Ilya, said the ship, operated by American President Lines, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines, arrived the country on Wedne sday evening
‘The ship has not discharged; it is currently under detention. Relevant agencies are collaborating to determine the actual content of the container and they will take necessary measures,’ Ilya said.
Ahead of the ship’s arrival, local newspapers had alerted the authorities that its contents include toxic waste.