ABSTRACT

Dangerous cargo is an integral but largely overlooked part of the global maritime economy. The literature on dangerous cargo relates to the international regulations that have emerged to manage and minimize its risks. This chapter argues that dangerous cargo has farther-reaching consequences than the regulations surrounding its safe passage from one port to another. The production, consumption and routes of dangerous cargo reproduce a highly uneven geography of toxic risks, burdening the most marginalized and disadvantaged populations around the world. The chapter focuses on one of the main forms of dangerous cargo, bulk petrochemicals. Most petrochemical factories are situated close to ports, as a result of agglomeration economies of interrelated industrial activities and the technical requirements of shipping transport. It aims to bridge this gap through examining petrochemicals explicitly in relation to ports and cargo shipping, tracing unequal geographies and politics of toxic risks through the case study of the Mississippi Chemical Corridor near the port of New Orleans.