Introduction:
Street Sweeping plays an important role in maintaining the health and
hygiene in cities. This job exposes street sweepers to a variety of risk factors that
leads to multiple health hazards such as: respiratory system problems, cardiovascular
degeneration, musculoskeletal disorders, infections, skin and gastrointestinal problems.
Aim of work:
To study the prevalence of some dermatological and respiratory
manifestations among street sweepers and its relevance with occupational exposure.
Materials and methods:
The present study is a comparative cross-sectional study,
conducted at Benha city, Qualubya Governorate, Egypt. Data was collected over a
period of 4 months. Cluster random sampling was used to choose the study groups as
we choose 5 quarters out from 16 quarters in Benha city by simple random sample.
The total number of participant enrolled in this study was 200 individuals (126 street
sweepers as a study group and 74 administrative staff as a control), all were non-
smokers, matched for duration of work and age.
Results:
Significant higher percentage
of skin disorders was detected among street sweepers in comparison to administrative
staff: hair loss (19 % vs. 6.8%), scabies (15.1% vs. 4%), frunculosis (18.3% vs. 4.1%),
contact dermatitis (17.5% vs. 2.7%), infected wound (11 % vs. 1.4 %), and varicosities
(25.4% vs. 6.8%) (p< 0.01). Pulmonary function tests of street sweepers showed
significant decline of (FEV1, FVC and FEV1/FVC ratio) in comparison to the control
group. Our study revealed strong association between working for 10 years or more
and development of chronic cough, phlegm (p value < 0.01), wheezes and feeling of
shortness of breath (p value < 0.05). More than fifty percent of street sweepers were not
Hassan O et al.,
112
Introduction
In recent decades, urbanization be
-
came a widespread problem in develop
-
ing countries with rapid economic de
-
velopment. It causes in accumulation of
population in cities that resulted in huge
number of sanitation problems as a lot
of garbage, dirty streets and blocked
drains which greatly expand the sanita
-
tion specialist workload and working
hours (Chandler and Feuille, 1994).
Street Sweeping plays an impor
-
tant role in maintaining the health and
hygiene in cities. It is a vigorous task
that involves sweeping of roads, parks,
markets and open areas. This occupa
-
tion exposes street sweepers to a variety
of risk factors as dust, ultraviolet rays,
toxins, sharps, microorganisms, volatile
organic matter, mechanical stress, bio-
aerosols and diesel exhaust pollution
(Krajewski et al., 2002).
At present, the management stan
-
dards and norms of municipal solid
wastes in industrialized countries have
significantly diminished occupational
health impacts. However, in developing
countries, solid waste management still
needs to be addressed. There is little,
if any, workers protection from direct
contact, injury and virtually no dust
control at the workplace (Cointreau-
Levine, 1995).
Apart from the social marginaliza
-
tion that these workers face, there is
insufficient health care, and this makes
them more prone to specific health
problems due to their occupation which
include respiratory system problems,
cardiovascular diseases, musculoskel
-
etal disorders, infections, skin problems
and gastrointestinal problems (Tamara
et al., 2008).
Intact skin serves as a natural bar
-
rier between the internal and external
environment, protecting the body from
pathogens and damage (Nayak et al.,
2013).
As regards the respiratory system,
many studies have postulated asso
-
ciation between increased respiratory
illness, abnormal lung function tests
and working at open dumps (Coin
-
treauLevine et al.,1998; Athanasiou et
wearing personal protective clothes at all.
Conclusion:
Exposure of sweeper’s workers
to many health hazards and poor use of protective equipments are associated with skin
and respiratory diseases |
