Exploding containers from Vietnam?
A forklift removes a container at Saigon Port in Ho Chi Minh City on March 6, 2008.
Some U.S. shipyards fear roughly 8,000 shipping containers that passed through Vietnam are explosive, according to Seattle's KING-5 TV outlet via MSNBC.
After hearing reports of dock workers killed by exploding containers abroad — two in Vietnam and one in Brazil — some U.S. longshoremen are refusing to handle select containers, reported San Francisco's KGO-TV.
All of the suspect shipping containers are "reefers" — shipyard slang for refrigerated containers — and bad coolant is among the suspected culprits.
Still, no one's quite sure what's caused the reefers to explode and if it'll happen again. At least one shipping line, APL, has distanced itself from the mystery by halting repair work in Vietnam.
The biggest fear, one labor union representative told KING-5, is a container on a truck bed "exploding next to a mom and her kids" on a highway.
The story you just read is accessible and free to all because thousands of listeners and readers contribute to our nonprofit newsroom. We go deep to bring you the human-centered international reporting that you know you can trust. To do this work and to do it well, we rely on the support of our listeners. If you appreciated our coverage this year, if there was a story that made you pause or a song that moved you, would you consider making a gift to sustain our work through 2024 and beyond?