[Feature] Toxic trade: shipbreaking in South Asia

The sight is dramatic. A small crew navigates an old, rusty ship a few miles offshore and then steers it full speed ahead into a sandy beach. When the tide is low, unskilled, informal workers come out with sledgehammers and other hand tools to tear the vessel apart. Young men wearing minimal protective gear cut wires and pipes and use blowtorches to blast through ship hulls. The process is the beaching and breaking down of ships at the end of their life. Most old ships are recycled this way, and it happens on just three beaches—Gadani in Pakistan, Alang in India, and Chittagong in Bangladesh.