Alam Mahbub-Ul, Sharior Fazle, Shoaib Dewan Muhammad, Hasan Mehedi, Tabassum Kazy Farhat, Ferdous Sharika, Hasan Moushumi, Rahman Mahbubur, Tidwell James B, Zaqout Mariam, Farah Makfie, Rahman Md Azizur, Ahmed Alauddin, Ahmed Tanvir
Environmental Interventions Unit, Infectious Disease Division, International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh.
School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, United Kingdom.
Hyg Environ Health Adv. 2022 Dec;4:100022. doi: 10.1016/j.heha.2022.100022. Epub 2022 Sep 3.
Waste and sanitation workers provide essential services to society. In most low-and middle-income countries, they are often mistreated and lack access to necessary personal protective equipment (PPE) and hygiene facilities that ensure occupational safety in workplaces. COVID-19 has also imposed serious health risks upon these worker groups. This study explores factors associated with poor occupational health and safety based on a conceptual framework. We conducted 499 surveys with five categories of waste and sanitation workers across ten cities in Bangladesh. We performed descriptive analysis and used Firth's logistic regression model following the conceptual framework. The analysis revealed consistent distinctions between workers considered to be in "safe" versus "unsafe" working conditions. The result showed that workers had not been adequately trained, not provided with proper equipment, and many had an informal status that prevented access to hygiene facilities. The workers who received occupational training, knew how to prevent COVID-19 by wearing a face mask, hand washing, and maintaining social distance, maintained protective measures, and practiced proper disposing of PPEs were more likely to be in safe condition. Initiatives to improve the situation of the waste workers who work in unsafe work conditions are still inadequate. Therefore, we recommend supplying proper protective equipment, ensuring a regular supply of gender-specific PPEs, and providing functional facilities necessary to practice personal hygiene and occupational safety, such as handwashing stations, changing rooms, and disposal facilities of used PPEs at the workplace. We also urge increased institutional management procedures, infrastructure that facilitates hygiene practices, and social policies to reduce occupational hazards for the waste workers in Bangladesh during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
垃圾和环卫工作者为社会提供着至关重要的服务。在大多数低收入和中等收入国家，他们常常受到虐待，并且无法获得确保工作场所职业安全所需的个人防护装备（PPE）和卫生设施。新冠疫情也给这些工人群体带来了严重的健康风险。本研究基于一个概念框架，探讨与职业健康和安全状况不佳相关的因素。我们在孟加拉国的十个城市，对五类垃圾和环卫工作者进行了499次调查。我们进行了描述性分析，并按照概念框架使用了费思逻辑回归模型。分析揭示了被认为处于“安全”与“不安全”工作条件下的工人之间存在持续的差异。结果表明，工人们没有得到充分的培训，没有配备适当的设备，而且许多人处于非正式工作状态，无法使用卫生设施。接受过职业培训、知道如何通过佩戴口罩、洗手和保持社交距离来预防新冠疫情、保持防护措施以及正确处理个人防护装备的工人，更有可能处于安全状态。改善在不安全工作条件下工作的垃圾处理工人状况的举措仍然不足。因此，我们建议提供适当的防护装备，确保定期供应针对性别的个人防护装备，并提供进行个人卫生和职业安全所需的功能性设施，如洗手站、更衣室以及工作场所使用过的个人防护装备的处理设施。我们还敦促加强机构管理程序、促进卫生习惯的基础设施建设以及社会政策，以在新冠疫情期间及之后减少孟加拉国垃圾处理工人面临的职业危害。
