title: Occupational exposure to the municipal solid waste workers in Chandigarh, India.
abstract: Manual handling of municipal solid waste is of serious concern owing to emerging occupational risks. Considering this, health risks of municipal solid waste workers involved in street sweeping, waste collection, waste processing and rag picking were assessed in Chandigarh, India, using an interview schedule as a study tool. Result shows that the waste worker profession is mainly dominated by males, except in rag pickers, and with a lower literacy rate. Age distribution shows that 16% of waste collectors and 11% of rag pickers were below 18 years of age. Daily income of the waste workers ranges from ₹100 to ₹200. It was observed that 22.2% of waste collectors, 43.2% of street sweepers and 25.5% of rag pickers do not use any type of protective gears owing to their casual attitude, which results in various types of injuries. The major occupational health issues reported by various categories of waste workers were respiratory disorders, injuries and allergies having prevalence of 12.3%-17.6%, 4.9%-44.4% and 35.3%-48.9%, respectively. Waste workers are vulnerable to occupational health hazards and hence there is a need to safeguard them through formulation of new laws and policies.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India khaiwal@yahoo.com Khaiwal.Ravindra@pgimer.edu.in.
authors.forename: Khaiwal
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ravindra
authors.affiliation: Department of Environment Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India.
authors.forename: Kamalpreet
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kaur
authors.affiliation: Centre for Public Health, Panjab University (PU), Chandigarh, India.
authors.forename: Suman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mor
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D015386:Hazardous Substances; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011481:Protective Clothing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D062611:Solid Waste; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015386:Hazardous Substances; D062611:Solid Waste
keywords: Clean India Mission; Informal worker; health risks; injuries; occupational exposure