Safety is necessary to protect staff and environment in a laboratory, and also to protect materials from possible crosscontamination. In most of the cases, biohazard waste handling by lower untrained staff in improper supervision and guidance results in damaging environment and transmit deadly diseases. This review presents development of waste management policies, plans and protocols in additi...

INTRODUCTION In the past decade, we studied occupational bioaerosol exposures in various sites of the waste management chain. In this paper we present an overview of exposure levels of inhalable dust, endotoxin, beta(1-->3)-glucan (known or probable inducers of airways inflammation), and extracellular polysaccharide antigens of Aspergillus and Penicillium species (EPS-Pen/Asp; a common and prob...

The state of the art on Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management is based on the domestic separation of materials produced. After domestic separation, the resident has to transfer the separated materials to the MSW manager through the hands of collection workers. It is exactly at this stage that an end-use product changes its status and property becomes waste. This paper analyzes and compares the...

BACKGROUND Waste collection workers are exposed to several occupational stressors which may affect their quality of life. Our aim was to assess the health status and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of municipal waste collection workers of a big German city. METHODS Cross-sectional study with a non-random sample of 65 (62 male, 3 female) workers of the Hamburg sanitation department, vol...

BACKGROUND The exposures of bio-aerosols have reported higher occupational health hazards, the association between serum total IgE levels and job categories and occupational health hazards of waste disposal area was limited. The present study was undertaken to assess the relationship between occupational health hazards and Serum total IgE in waste disposal area. MATERIALS AND METHODS One hund...

When skilled workers migrate, they face the brain waste risk, i.e., they can end up employed as unskilled. We analyze the effects of brain waste on brain drain, resulting from low international transferability of skills. We show that this type of brain waste: (1) reduces education incentives; (2) weakens the chances for a positive self-selection; and (3) decreases the possibility of a brain gai...

BACKGROUND There is an increasing evidence that the incidence of work-related pulmonary problems is greater in waste collectors than in the general workforce. AIMS To evaluate the respiratory health of municipal solid waste workers (MSWWs). METHODS One hundred and eighty-four municipal employees of Keratsini (104 MSWWs and 80 controls) participated in a cross-sectional study. All participan...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Infectious waste management practices among health care workers in the tertiary care hospitals have been questionable. The study intended to identify issues that impede a proper infectious waste management. METHODS Besides direct observation, in-depths interviews were conducted with the hospital administrators and senior management involved in healthcare waste managem...

A study on hepatitis B and C virus seroprevalence was carried out on blood samples from 327 municipal solid waste workers in Messina (Italy) to verify the hypothesis that this category of workers is at high risk for such diseases. The fact that 32.41% of all the subjects showed previous exposure to hepatitis B virus (HBV) substantiates the need to proceed with compulsory HBV vaccine prophylaxis...