It's a dangerous job but lots of workers are willing to do it - either overseas or in the United States, in ports from Texas to Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

With high demand for scrap metal, there's the opportunity for companies to make a heck of a lot of money recycling obsolete U.S. military vessels. For workers in often-declining industrial areas or in impoverished countries, it's the chance to get a job.

“Shipyards is one of the industries that OSHA has identified as one of the most hazardous in the country,” said Carl Halgren, US-OSHA's area director based in Portland.

That's the catch here in the United States.

Prevention police

The rules developed by Halgren's agency make it tougher for American companies to compete against foreign shipbreakers. That doesn't even include permitting and rules for protecting estuaries. If it weren't for the Toxic Control Substances Act, the 180 or so rotting vessels anchored in three U.S. harbors already would have been broken apart overseas in Bangladesh or other Asian countries. The scrap metal and reusable machinery would have been sold.

There, “they haul a ship on the beach. Hundreds of workers are involved in cutting it up. Employees are working there just basically wearing sandals and barefoot,” Halgren said.

Those workers are exposed to asbestos, polychlorinated biphenyls, oils, lead and more, not including the potential for falls into holds and strains from heavy lifting. There's no count on how many of those people die or are injured every year.

“What's done in the United States has been vastly better,” he said.

U.S. labor laws require workers at ship recycling facilities to be 18 years of age or older. The workers who remove the hazardous materials are typically among the lowest paid.

OSHA laws require workers to button on special clothing and gloves to protect them from lead and PCBs when they are removing paints or pulling out and cutting insulated pipes and wiring.

They are supposed to wear ear plugs. Workers must strap on breathing gear to protect from asbestos fibers that float into the air as they scrape up flooring or pull down insulation. The masks keep out the smoke curling up from metal cutting. But before they do any of that, they have to be trained. All the while, companies must monitor air quality and sample for toxic substances aboard ship.

US-OSHA backs up those rules with one annual, unannounced health and safety inspection. There might be more. If other agencies tip inspectors to a potential problem or if there's a serious injury or someone dies, an inspector is likely to show up at the front gate.

Accident prone

Out of every 100 people working in a U.S. shipyard in 2004, about 13 were injured. That included everything from the No. 1 complaint of sprains down to broken bones and eye injuries. Statistically, it's comparable to injuries for people in the car-building industry. OSHA reports don't show how many, if any, American workers died on the job over the past few years.

OSHA officials approach the issue almost clinically. In 2001, the agency implemented a “National Emphasis Program on Shipbreaking.” The goal was to eliminate workplace hazards and injuries.

The suggestion is there are a lot of them, more than in typical ship repair operations, though OSHA statisticians were unable to provide any breakouts that pertain specifically to the nation's eight approved ship recycling yards.

But from 2003 to 2004, the shipbuilding industry saw injuries - those that sent people home from work - increase from 2,970 to 5,100 nationwide.

Talk to shipyard owners and they have mixed feelings about OSHA regulators. No business wants an inspector to write up violations. Often those come with fines attached, or the more costly process of changing operations for injury prevention. Over the past five years, according to an OSHA database, only one ship dismantling company invited health and safety inspectors in for a voluntary inspection.

While some employers may contend the rules are a detriment to business, Halgren is nonplused.

“Pay me now or pay me later. The companies that do pay attention to safety do make more money,” he said bluntly.

Still legal to use

Shipyards need only fear federal OSHA inspectors. The feds don't allow states to watch over shipyards for worker safety. In Oregon, there are five federal OSHA employees. Three work as inspectors, with the unmet goal to make surprise visits to each of the state's 20 shipyards annually.

A conversation with Halgren or other OSHA inspectors isn't so much about individual horror stories, but mundane methodical training and organized work processes. If a company wants to make money, if it wants to keep workers safe and avoid worker compensation claims, it has to invest at the front end.

Workers have to know how to protect themselves. If they follow consistent, planned working practices, statistics show the accident rate drops.

The substances ship dismantlers deal with are the same ones people deal with in other recycling or deconstruction industries. Ironically, few substances are banned.

“Even asbestos is legal to use in things. It's not banned as people think. You can actually find it in new construction, floor tiles,” said Dave McLaughlin, an OR-OSHA industrial hygienist.

PCBs still are in use, too, but these days companies avoid using them as insulation or coolants. Class action lawyers probably are to blame.

What's scary about many of the substances is they are absorbed into people's lungs or bodies and they don't come back out. That can translate into cancer and other disease, McLaughlin said.

“We're not just the black hat bad guys out to shut down your job,” McLaughlin said.

Something seemingly as benign as lead can equate to problems not only for workers but their families. It's the tiny chips of paint that no one sees that can poison someone, especially when they breathe it in or it gets on their hands.

“Every time you touch your mouth, eat, smoke, chew, you're basically ingesting lead,” he said.

People who don't wear protective clothing carry the dust home. Sit in the easy chair, and it spreads. Lead collects in bones and interferes with red blood cell production.

Businesses and workers can blame or thank decades of efforts by lawyers, unions and activists for worker safety laws. But when it comes to competing in a global market, it's tough. Those worker protections raise the cost of doing business.

And high scrap metal prices aside, that's one more reason there's a push to persuade Congress to allow the United States to again allow export of military ships for dismantling.