Conclusion

Abstract

The reader was unfamiliar with many aspects of oil pollution will by now have come to the conclusion that oil pollution can never happen. Each chapter has discussed at some length the various precautions which must be taken to avoid accidental spills and reference has been made to the various codes of practice regulations and local bye-laws which have been drawn up by all the various authorities with the object of making oil pollution impossible. In addition chapter 13 described some of the laws and penalties which are applied to those who, for one reason or another, allow oil to be spilt. Surely all of these must combine to make the spilling of oil, on land or water, a very rare occurrence. On the other hand, casual observation of the news media will soon bring to light cases where oil tankers have run aground sometimes spilling oil, where collisions between tankers, or between tankers and other vessels have occurred and, usually on a more local scale, where road tankers have left the highway, overturned and caused pollution. A walk along a sandy sea-shore in almost any part of the world will soon bring to view lumps of congealed oil.