Occupational health and safety of municipal solid waste handlers in Sri Lanka

Due to improper Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM), waste has become one of the pollution sources and caused diverse environmental impacts as well as negative impacts on human health and safety. Despite adverse health impacts on many living organisms, MSW handlers are also subjected to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) issues in Sri Lanka. Although, they play a significant role in MSWM, the OHS of MSW handlers has been neglected in Sri Lanka. So far, no studies have been carried out on the same. Thus, it has become a timely requirement for exploring the OHS issues faced by MSW handlers. This paper therefore aimed to explore the occupational injuries and illnesses that MSW handlers are associated with, and the basic causes which leads to such OHS issues. Accordingly, a qualitative research approach with two case studies was utilised to achieve the aim of the research. Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with both authority level and worker level employees. Collected data were analysed using content analysis with the support of NVivo 12 plus software. The findings reflected that MSW handlers mostly suffer from back pain, slipping and falling, knee/calf pain, and headaches/migraine due to the nature of the job. Manual handling, negligence of use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), poor working environment, inadequate training and instructions, careless behaviour, health condition and age level of MSW handlers are identified as fundamental causes that greatly impact of OHS issues. Both OHS issues and respective causes are bound with organisational, cultural, economic, financial, and individual aspects that are unique to the Sri Lankan context. Finally, the findings generated through this study can be employed in many ways by respective industry practitioners to take informative decision to enhance the OHS of MSW handlers.