Air Quality Aboard Cruise Ships

[Modern_Viking]

This study seems to include some likely truthful data, but seemingly not much useful data. 

 

As others have pointed out, it seems like it would be a bad idea for passengers and cruise to spend lots of time in areas that get sooty, dirty, or dusty from the ship exhaust generated by engines, galleys, and laundries.  While the study author seems to have selected a seemingly reasonable place to get a baseline reading for airborne particulate matter (PM) while the ships are underway (looks like a good start to me) the only other measurement locations were in the two spots most likely to face high PM readings.  I would find value in this "study" if data was collected at least as often in: (1) the main dining room, (2) the main galley), (3) the Lido restaurant, (4) the Lido pool area, (5) on the navigation bridge, (6) in multiple passenger cabins, (7) in some lower deck crew areas like the crew mess and in typical crew cabins, (8) in designated smoking areas like the casino, and (9) in a high-capacity, crew operated laundry room. 

 

I wonder if there are more strict rules about air quality in cruise ship galleys and laundry rooms than there are rules about air quality near the main funnel.  I know laundry room lint (a type of PM mentioned in this whitepaper) contributes strongly to the risk of onboard fires, so probably there are rules about making sure there are somewhat low lint levels in laundry rooms (even if the way to achieve that is to vent some lint filled air out the smokestack, or to collect the lint using air filters in the room). 

 

It appears the author went to great lengths not to collect data while people were smoking or vaping near by.  That's good, to a point, but how bad would be data be, in comparison, in designated smoking areas?  Could the smoking allowed casino have a higher PM reading than an aft deck while underway?  Maybe, but that probably would not be of interest or use to the people funding this whitepaper. 

 

I think we could learn much more about the possible risks of sailing on a passenger ship with those sorts of data points.  But it would have taken more effort (and probably more cost) to get all that data.  And getting data in some of those area would have required the consent of the ship operator (who might try to affect the quality of the data or refuse access).  If most or all of those locations also had equally elevated PM counts I would be very worried.  But somehow I would guess that they wouldn't (or at least shouldn't). 

 

The information provided does seem to be a potentially valid warning for "patrons and staff who are in the aft areas of cruise ships" for long periods of many days.  It probably is also bad news for people who live downwind of ship piers.  But it doesn't provide any indication that there is an elevated risk to patrons and staff who primarily spend their time in areas of the ship that other than the upper decks aft of the funnel. 

 

Also note there is little to no maritime specific data listed.  As others pointed out, there is no data presented like (1) wind speed and direction, (2) speed of the ship (if underway), and/or number of generators running (3) type of fuel being burned, (4) if the ship, while in port, is cold ironing (i.e. using shore power vs. onboard power generation), which I believe the ms Amsterdam could do in some of the listed ports of call, etc.  Heck, even the diagrams used to show the measurement points for the ms. Amsterdam and the Emerald Princes are not diagrams of those ships, but of some other HAL ship (the Nieuw Amsterdam, looks most likely to my eye).

 

Granted, I am not an expert in public health, nor do I hold any maritime licenses (i.e. I am not a professional ship's navigator or a ship's engineer).  But I know enough to see there is a terrible lack of serious and useful data in this study.  This seems to me like a quick first trial (or white paper) done with the hopes of attracting more grant money in order to go off and do a real study.  Or maybe it is just salacious enough that the funding parties got what they want and they don't intend or desire to spend the money to perform an in-depth study.  Yes, cruising causes pollution.  As do many human activities.  But this doesn't seem like a careful attempt to get much more than an initial set of possible worst case or maybe just random sample, results.

[OlsSalt]

The author did apparently get four "free" cruises out of the deal.  Wonder how the rest of us can cook up a similar "research" project aboard four different cruise ships.

 

---What is the comparative calorie count and cholesterol impact of breakfast croissants on four different cruise ships? -- I am writing my grant solicitation application right now.

 

---Do ship's live floral arrangements risk importing invasive species to remote locations?

 

---What is the average number of deep sleep REM hours experienced on various cruise ship mattresses and pillow configurations.

 

---Does cruise travel to equatorial regions increase one's exposure to ultra-violet radiation?

 

--What are cabin gyration factors inside  the elevator bank zone compared to outside the elevtor bank zone?

Edited January 28, 2019 by OlsSalt

[TAD2005]

Never fear.  If certain people and groups have their way, very soon the entire top decks of cruise ships will be covered with solar panels and the entire engine room will contain hundreds of banks of storage batteries.   (I'm joking, of course)   

But ships will still need multiple diesel engines to recharge the batteries when the skies are too cloudy to generate sufficient power from the solar arrays.   I have been on a trans-Atlantic crossing where we didn't see the sun for 6 of the 7 days.   I'm all for minimizing burning of fossil fuels, but until there is a 10-fold leap in energy storage technology,  solar or wind powered ships and solar powered aircraft will simply not be practical.

[chengkp75]

8 hours ago, Modern_Viking said:

 

I wonder if there are more strict rules about air quality in cruise ship galleys and laundry rooms than there are rules about air quality near the main funnel.  I know laundry room lint (a type of PM mentioned in this whitepaper) contributes strongly to the risk of onboard fires, so probably there are rules about making sure there are somewhat low lint levels in laundry rooms (even if the way to achieve that is to vent some lint filled air out the smokestack, or to collect the lint using air filters in the room). 

 

I don't know of any air quality rules regarding laundries or galleys, but I can explain what happens here.

 

Laundries will have large capacity filters on the dryer exhaust lines.  Then these exhaust lines join together, and form a large trunk that goes up, typically up inside and disguised in the foremast of the ship to vent the hot air as far up as possible.  This dryer trunk is kept to a minimum of horizontal runs to allow any lint in the air to fall back down to the bottom.  Monthly, the trunk is opened up, wherever there is a horizontal run, for manual cleaning by people going inside and sweeping, and then the trap at the bottom is cleaned.

 

Galleys have exhaust hoods over the stoves that have filter panels in them, and these are automatically cleaned by a liquid chemical solution nightly to remove the particles and grease.  Monthly, the galley exhaust trunks are cleaned by first introducing steam into them to loosen any grease, and then they are opened up at access points, and the crew spend several hours at night reaching or crawling into the ducts to wipe out the loosened grease, and the fans themselves are opened and wiped clean.

 

Both of these actions are to prevent potential fires, not for air quality control.

[Copper10-8]

57 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

The author did apparently get four "free" cruises out of the deal.  Wonder how the rest of us can cook up a similar "research" project aboard four different cruise ships.

 

---What is the comparative calorie count and cholesterol impact of breakfast croissants on four different cruise ships? -- I am writing my grant solicitation application right now.

 

---Do ship's live floral arrangements risk importing invasive species to remote locations?

 

---What is the average number of deep sleep REM hours experienced on various cruise ship mattresses and pillow configurations.

 

---Does cruise travel to equatorial regions increase one's exposure to ultra-violet radiation?

 

--What are cabin gyration factors inside  the elevator bank zone compared to outside the elevtor bank zone?

 

A study about how many laps exactly around the P-deck does one mile make.....................just sayin' I'm talking calibrated measuring devices and thermometers for bodily temp

 

 

[sfaaa]

2 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

The author did apparently get four "free" cruises out of the deal.

Free cruise obviously trumped knowingly exposing himself to polluted air and health risk. What a guy. Sacrificing himself to take one for the team and the cause. 

[OlsSalt]

Our local enviros start screaming as soon as the cruise ships on re-positioning cruises start showing up at our little town. Whale killers and traveling petri dishes bringing  scurillous plague to the local populous are some the kinder words I can still print on this family website.  

 

Something about adding 30,000 car trips of pollution to our air with each stop too. Overlooked are the valuable tourism dollars they also bring, but that is just money which is its own form of dirty pollution too in their vocabulary.  They are a tough crowd. Plus they fund a boat and crew to follow each cruise ship to test the waters at multiple points,  to ensure there is no illegal dumping.