Assessment of Occupational and Environmental Health and Safety Risks in Solid Waste Systems

In the first phase of this study, the work has focused on the collection of data exploiting the state of existing knowledge. Review of literature on occupational and environmental exposures and related health outcomes in solid waste management systems is conducted. Reports are collected from several reliable sources at the national, state, and local levels from both public and private utilities (i.e., National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and Workers' Compensation data). Total populations of workers and populations of worker by occupational type are achieved by reviewing Bureau of Labor Statistics and Florida Research and Economic Information Database Application websites. The NAICS and SIC Codes for the studied solid waste industries are also provided for the permit requests that were placed to Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Worker‟s Compensation for the requested workers‟ compensation data. In this work, the major industries generating solid wastes are introduced as recycling, incineration, landfill, and composting with brief description of each. Then, the reported exposures, health impacts of these exposures, and potential risks for workers are identified for each of the abovementioned industries. A health and safety survey is also prepared to be distributed among waste workers and safety officers in various public and private solid waste utilities of the State of Florida.