Arsenic exposure can result in lung, skin, intestinal, kidney, liver and bladder cancers. It can also cause damage to blood vessels. Inflammation of nervous tissue caused by arsenic can result in loss of feeling or paralysis. Disfiguring growths may also appear on the skin of exposed humans. TBTO is acutely poisonous, and is also genotoxic.
Exposure can also suppress the immune system.
Dioxins are potent carcinogens and suppressors of the immune system and are accumulated in body fat tissue. In addition they are suspected of prenatal and postnatal effects on the nervous system of children. In animal studies they have been shown to reduce sperm production. Our campaigners have witnessed and documented the appalling situation in some of these shipyards in India and China. In India we have seen people picking asbestos-containing insulation materials from ships with their bare hands.