THE REGULATORY CHALLENGE FACING MARINE COATINGS

Dr L.A. Speed, Safinah Ltd, UK

Dr M.R. Kattan, Safinah Ltd, UK

Presented in April 2005 at ENSUS 2005

Now that the TBT ban is in place, a number of other regulatory challenges that affect marine coatings

and are getting more attention.

Whilst there are hopefully many environmental benefits of these changes in place, the statistics on the

loss of life at sea imply that here has been no major change over the last 30 years. A problem with all

this legislation is that it is focused on one individual item and the bigger picture of how it all impacts

the whole of the shipbuilding, coating and ship operations is not taken into account. Some legislation

has caused more problems in related areas than the benefit it was meant to give. If a more thorough

understanding of the impact of the legislation on the whole of the shipping process was considered and

the regulations harmonised, more productive, less repetitive solutions could have been identified by the

industry. It would also probably take less policing and reduce the compliance checking for everyone.

A major regulatory impact in the near future is in the area of ballast water treatment, which may also

impact marine coatings.

1.

Introduction

Over recent years many regulations that have come into force affecting marine coatings have often

been as a result of regulatory bodies imposing rules to protect the environment and the health and

safety of workers and passengers exposed to those products.

Within the last 15 years alone, over 11 separate regulations and standards have been introduced

concerning just the coating aspects of ballast water tanks [1], in addition there have been numerous

others relating to antifouling paints, solvent emissions etc.

This paper sets out to debate the methods by which regulations are developed based on a focus of the

environmental impact of one part of the shipping/shipbuilding value chain, rather than a consideration

of the effect of changes on the whole value chain.

The aim of any new legislation must be to provide a net gain to the environment when all factors are

taken into account, rather than the improvement of one local process or activity.

Often the legislation that is introduced focuses on a micro scale environmental problem within one part

of the value chain that doesn’t necessarily bring any overall benefits on the macro scale, or even worse,

can actually result in a negative impact over the whole value chain.

A number of different bodies with specific interests; e.g. International Maritime Organization (IMO),

Port States, bring in legislation and various action groups such as the WWF and Friends of the Earth

rightly influence these bodies. There is nothing wrong with that process in that it highlights the areas of

concern that need improvement. It is the solutions reached that are at odds, in that they often assume