Paint ban sealed

The IMO has finally decided to ban TBT antifoulings and, more importantly, decided on the barrier coat option, which will save owners having to go about getting all their existing TBT antifouling removed. Many will breathe a sigh of relief because removing 20 years of antifouling from the bottom of your ship would have been a very expensive and time-consuming business. Only shiprepair yards will be disappointed, although it was debatable whether they could have accommodated every ship before the deadline. Some paint manufacturers, such as International, will also be breathing easier as well as it has already developed sealing coatings for a number of its products, including the foul-release system Intersleek, gambling on the IMO sealing coat option. However, any ship owners that have already switched to copper-based antifoulings might not be out of the woods as the convention “provides for the establishment of a technical group, to include people with relevant expertise, to review proposals for other substances used in antifouling systems to be prohibited or restricted”. This piece of legislation has been designed to deal with any future problems more quickly than has been achieved with TBT. Many believe it could also focus on the booster biocides used in many antifoulings that have been known to cause problems. The next problem to be overcome is the enforcing of these regulations, which is not going to be easy.