SHIPS should be required to carry at least one automatic external defibrillator to prevent needless deaths from heart attacks at sea, the IMO was told.

The International Bulk Terminals Association estimated that up to 1,700 people could suffer a sudden cardiac arrest on ships every year, excluding passengers.

“Hundreds of ship and shore personnel suffer cardiac arrest due to natural and traumatic causes on board ships every year,” the group said.

“Some of those lives could be saved if ships carried AEDs, but without an AED, none of them have any chance of survival.”

AEDs analyse heart rhythm and deliver an electric shock to restart the heart if needed.

Using one within three to five minutes of heart failure can boost survival in up to 50%-70% of cases, IBTA said in a submission in July. But for every minute that CPR and AED are not applied, the chances of survival fall by 10%.

“As there is currently no statutory requirement under international regulations for ships to carry an AED, and relatively few do so, any person on a ship who suffers a cardiac arrest, whether at sea or in port, has little or no possibility of survival,” IBTA said.

Germany is the only flag state known to mandate the carriage of AEDs on merchant ships. The UK recommends them for passengerships depending on a risk assessment of one being used more than once every five years.

AEDs are relatively cheap, durable and can work for up to 15 years, IBTA said. All US and EU commercial airlines are required to carry them.

“Their cost, training and maintenance requirements are no longer an obstacle to having at least one on every ship,” IBTA said.

IBTA estimated the 1,700 figure based on a seafarer workforce of 1.9m, assuming an SCA death rate of 50-100 people per 100,000 in line with the general population, and assuming the number of shore workers on board ships at any time amounts to 20% of the seafarer workforce.