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Health and Safety Considerations in Waste Management

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Solid Waste Engineering and Management

Part of the book series: Handbook of Environmental Engineering ((HEE,volume 25))

Abstract

Waste management is an essential element whether it is in developed or developing countries since each country needs to deal with waste products that involve the collection, treatment and disposal of the refuse/garbage. A part of effective management would include safety and health requirements since it will provide protection for the workers while reducing costs in terms of accidental and work-related diseases. Henceforth, health and safety scope play a crucial role for industries associated with high risk and accidental issues such as mining and construction, as would be available in most literature. However, it rarely includes the waste sector even though the workers are exposed towards various high-risk factors not just from the ergonomic aspect but also in the physical and mechanical element as well as biological and chemical risks. The so-called safety concern is revolved around the physical hazard during the whole management step of waste, whereas the health risk is particularly due to the bioaerosol elements (dust, bacteria, fungi, endotoxin, etc.) Even more, these health and safety issues in waste management are considered more obvious in developing countries than in developed countries since most of the waste is handled by hand/manually, and there is also a lack of awareness or consideration regarding the risk. Obviously, each country dealt differently depending on the technological advancement in which developed countries would have a wider scope involving waste risk, such as for technological waste treatment (e.g. composting and incineration) and management of quite riskier waste materials (hazardous or radioactive waste). Nonetheless, the health risk related to waste management needs to be assessed for both the exposure pathway (workers and public) and also on the health effect from the exposure, with the need to consider the confounding factors.

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Abbreviations

1-OHP:

1-Hydroxypyrene

8-OHdG:

8-Hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine

CDD:

Chlorodibenzo-p-dioxin

CDF:

Chlorodibenzo Furan

CFU:

Colony-forming unit

CI:

Confidence interval

COMARE:

Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment

dB (A):

Decibel (A)

DNA:

Deoxyribonucleic acid

E. coli :

Escherichia coli

ESP:

Electrostatic precipitation

EU:

European Union or endotoxin unit

HBV:

Hepatitis B virus

HIV:

Human immunodeficiency virus

HxCB:

Hexachlorobenzene

IgE:

Immunoglobulin E

I-TEQ:

International toxic equivalent quantity

KIM-MHO:

The key indicator method for manual handling operations

MAC:

Maximum allowable concentration

MSW:

Municipal solid waste

N:

Newton unit

NIOSH:

National Institute of Occupational, Safety and Health

OD:

Odd risk

OSH:

Occupational safety and health

PAH:

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

PCBs:

Polychlorinated biphenyls

PCDDs:

Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins

PCDFs:

Polychlorinated dibenzofurans

PeCB:

Pentachlorobenzene

qPCR:

Quantitative polymerase chain reaction

RR:

Relative risk

SNPs:

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms

TCB:

Trichloro benzene

TCDD:

2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin

TEF:

Toxicity equivalent factor

TLVs:

Threshold limit values

UK:

United Kingdom

USA:

United States of America

VLI:

Variable lifting index

VOC:

Volatile organic carbon

WHO:

World Health Organization

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Technology, Faculty of Ocean Engineering, Technology and Informatic, Universiti Terengganu Malaysia, Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia

    M. Shahrir M. Zahari, Shahrul Ismail & Noor Zaitun Yahaya

  2. Environmental Science, Faculty of Science and Marine Environment, Universiti Terengganu Malaysia, Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia

    Izan Jaafar

  3. School of Civil Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

    Hamidi Abdul Aziz

  4. Solid Waste Management Cluster, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

    Hamidi Abdul Aziz

  5. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Yung-Tse Hung

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  1. Lenox Institute of Water Technology, Latham, NY, USA

    Lawrence K. Wang

  2. Lenox Institute of Water Technology, Latham, NY, USA

    Mu-Hao Sung Wang

  3. Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Yung-Tse Hung

Glossary

Confidence interval (CI)

Types of estimates computed from the statistics of the observed data

Composting

Process for decomposing organic materials into simpler organic and inorganic compounds

Colony-forming unit (CFU )

A unit used in microbiology to estimate the number of viable bacteria or fungal cells in a sample

Congenital anomalies

A structural or functional anomaly (e.g. metabolic disorders) occurs during intrauterine life and can be identified prenatally at birth or detected later in infancy.

Decibel A or dB (A)

The decibel A filter is widely used for sound measurement where the dB (A) roughly corresponds to the inverse of the 40 dB (at 1 kHz) equal-loudness curve for the human ear.

Electrostatic precipitation (ESP)

A filterless device that removes fine particles, like dust and smoke, from a flowing gas using the force of an induced electrostatic charge minimally impeding the flow of gases through the unit.

Endotoxin unit (EU)

Level of endotoxin since endotoxin molecular weight may vary a great deal from 10,000 to 1,000,000 Da

Epidemiology

Branch of medicine deals with the incidence, distribution and control of diseases

Incinerator

Furnace for the burning of waste materials

International toxic equivalent quantity (I-TEX)

An approach that facilitates risk communication internationally by reducing large volumes of analytical data into an internationally recognised single number

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas

Cancer that starts in white blood cells called lymphocytes, which are part of the body’s immune system

Odd risk (OR)

The ratio of odds of an event in one group versus the odds of the event in the other group

Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR )

A laboratory technique used by molecular biology based on a polymerase chain reaction where the amplification of a targeted deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule undergoing a chain reaction is monitored on a real-time basis.

Relative risk (RR)

Risk ratio is the ratio of the probability of an outcome in an exposed group to the probability of an outcome in an unexposed group

Toxic equivalency factor (TEF)

The term to express the toxicity of dioxins, furans and PCBs in terms of the most toxic form of dioxin, 2,3,7,8-TCDD

Threshold limit values (TLV)

The maximum level of an airborne substance that a worker can be safely subjected to without being susceptible to harm or injury

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Zahari, M.S.M., Jaafar, I., Ismail, S., Yahaya, N.Z., Aziz, H.A., Hung, YT. (2022). Health and Safety Considerations in Waste Management. In: Wang, L.K., Wang, MH.S., Hung, YT. (eds) Solid Waste Engineering and Management. Handbook of Environmental Engineering, vol 25. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96989-9_9

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