Thousands of ships fitted with "cheat devices" to divert poisonous pollution into sea

Global shipping companies have spent billions rigging vessels with "cheat devices" that circumvent new environmental legislation by dumping pollution into the sea instead of the air, The Independent can reveal. More than $12bn (£9.7bn) has been spent on the devices, known as open-loop scrubbers, which extract sulfur from the exhaust fumes of ships that run on heavy fuel oil.