Undercover tests on the passenger deck of a European cruiseship have unveiled high levels of harmful particles in the air.
A team of French journalists conducted the survey on an unnamed vessel and the results were broadcast last Friday.
The findings showed concentrations up to 200 times natural background levels.
Leif Miller, chief executive of Germany’s green pressure group NABU, said: “Shipowners expose their passengers to high loads of health damaging pollutants.
“Actually nobody can call this a fresh sea breeze any longer facing 200-fold higher particle concentrations on deck of a cruiseship.
“Despite these shocking data major parts of the cruise industry are refusing to switch to cleaner fuels and to install exhaust gas cleaning systems like they are a common standard for all land-based sources since years.”
The name of the vessel or the company was not mentioned during the French TV broadcast.
Daniel Rieger, NABU’s transport policy officer, said: “We were not surprised when we saw these new figures.
“It has been known for years that exhaust gases from ships contain high amounts of toxic air pollutants as these vessels sail on the dirtiest fuels available on the market and lack any filter systems.”
