(Susan Scutti/ CNN) — Cruise ships generate high levels of air pollution that could endanger the health of passengers, staff and port communities, according to an undercover report released Jan. 24.
On the decks of the four Carnival Corp. cruise ships studied over a two-year period, concentrations of particulate matter measured were “comparable to concentrations measured in polluted cities, including Beijing and Santiago,” according to Ryan Kennedy, author of the report and an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Ship exhaust contains harmful constituents, including metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, many of which have toxic, possibly cancer-causing properties, Kennedy said: “It’s dangerous it’s not a healthy thing for us to be exposed to.” (…)