RESEARCH ARTICLE


Health and Work Conditions of Garbage Collectors: A Cross-Sectional Study



Edilane Jales Leite Magalhães1
iD
, Márcia Astrês Fernandes2
iD
, Magda Rogeria Pereira Viana1
iD
, Maria do Carmo de Carvalho e Martins1, 2
iD
, Eliana Campêlo Lago3
iD
, Dulce Aparecida Barbosa4
iD
, Lucíola Galvão Gondim Corrêa Feitosa1
iD
, Carmen Viana Ramos1, *
iD

1 Centro Universitário UNINOVAFAPI, Teresina, Brazil
2 Federal University of Piauí, Teresina, Piauí, Brazil
3 State University of Maranhão, São Luís, Brazil
4 Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil


Article Metrics

CrossRef Citations:
0
Total Statistics:

Full-Text HTML Views: 5219
Abstract HTML Views: 690
PDF Downloads: 239
ePub Downloads: 104
Total Views/Downloads: 6252
Unique Statistics:

Full-Text HTML Views: 2480
Abstract HTML Views: 262
PDF Downloads: 203
ePub Downloads: 83
Total Views/Downloads: 3028



Creative Commons License
© 2021 Leite Magalhães et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Centro Universitário UNINOVAFAPI, Brazil; E-mail:cvramos@uninovafapi.edu.br


Abstract

Background:

Waste is considered everything that has lost utility after being use; therefore, it no longer has value to a person or a community. After objects have lost their value, they need to be removed from homes, workplaces, stores, markets, etc. Hence, waste collectors remove the garbage left on the streets and allocate it to appropriate places. From a historical perspective, waste disposal is closely related to consumption and values of cleanliness, purity, and organization of the current society.

Objective:

To analyze health and work conditions of waste collectors and the association of these parameters with the length of service.

Methods:

Cross-sectional study. The sample consisted of 112 participants. Questionnaires addressing sociodemographic, work, and health conditions were used. The analysis of the association between health conditions and length of service was performed using Fisher's exact test with a significance level of p < 0.05.

Results:

There was a statistically significant difference between the length of service (more than two years) and a higher occurrence of injuries such as sharp injuries (p <0.001), headache (p = 0.036), back pain (p = 0.008) and work leave (p = 0.021).

Conclusion:

The working health conditions of waste collectors described in this study are associated with back pain, headache, and work and sick leave.

Keywords: Waste pickers, Accidents at work, Workers' health, Wrong waste management, Technological advancement, Brazil.