Photo by wheatfields

Known in some countries as ‘tablet of love’, aluminium phosphate pellets used for fumigation aboard ship represent a significant hazard to sefarers.  As the latest Maritime Accident Casebook podcast warns, those hazards may be hidden and unexpected.

Based on a report from the UK’s Maritime Accident Investigation Branch, The Case Of The Tablets Of Love concerns the death of a Polish seafarer in his cabin aboard a vessel carrying feed wheat from Kaliningrad, Russia, to Montrose, Scotland. The wheat had been fumigated using aluminium phosphide tablets which generated toxic phosphine gas. [Continue Reading →]

Bob Couttie of Maritime Accident Casebook is giving MAIIF a helping hand researching accidents in confined spaces and is looking for your help. He writes:

I know there are more incidents out there that may not have been reported, or not well reported, either in the media or in official investigations by certain reluctant flag states, and there will be a lot of ‘close call’ incidents that don’t get on the radar. Do use the confidential@maritimeaccident.org if you, or someone you know, has an incident to report, or a comment on a specific incident or close call. Identities will be stripped out of the reports to protect the reporter.