Measures to reduce the exposure of waste collection workers to handborne and airborne microorganisms and inflammogenic dust

A safe haven of SARS-CoV-2 in the environment: Prevalence and potential transmission risks in the effluent, sludge, and biosolids

“…Similarly, the aerosols containing SARS-CoV-2 and/or other pathogens are generated during the sewage sludge collection ( Lu et al, 2020 , Madsen et al, 2020 ), processing and treatment of effluents and sludge ( Gholipour et al, 2021 , Zaneti et al, 2021 ), and also during the application or the reuse of effluents and sludge in the field ( Rosenberg Goldstein et al, 2014 , Sampson et al, 2017 ). Several other studies have also confirmed the transmission route of SARS-CoV-2 via aerosols ( Kim et al, 2020 , Shen et al, 2020 , van Doremalen et al, 2020 ), with a relatively high risk of the virus infection by wastewater workers ( Gholipour et al, 2021 ).…”

Human adenovirus in municipal solid waste leachate and quantitative risk assessment of gastrointestinal illness to waste collectors

“…Two The modelled exposures scenarios were modeled, assessingrepresented the worstcase scenarios of workers involved in daily waste-related activities exposed toin the context of heavily polluted truck surfacesenvironment. Although such assumptions lead to an overestimation of the risk, an exposure assessment study carried out with Danish waste collectors showed high bacteria and fungi levels on truck surfaces during the collection of household waste by compactor trucks (Madsen et al 2020). Moreover, We we made the conservative assumption that all infective particles were enteropathogenic, since a the higher prevalence of HAdV-F, a virus associated with GI illness (Reis et al 2016;Arcangeletti et al 2014) was detected, although Group B and C serotypes responsible for respiratory symptoms were also detected.…”

“…However, this approach is not widelyrarely used for risk assessment of MSW collection workers, with the analysis focused on bioaerosol inhalation (Akpeimeh et al 2020). Accidental oral ingestion of microbes during waste collection is rarely addressed, except for monitoring studies on fungal and bacteria contamination on workers' hands (Madsen et al 2016;Madsen et al 2020). To fill this gap on occupational exposure risk, we studiedworkers exposure scenarios from through inadvertent ingestion of collection trucks leachate was investigated to estimate and estimated HAdV GI illness risk.…”

Bioaerosol in Composting Facilities: A Survey on Full-Scale Plants in Italy

“…The measures applied by the waste collection workers resulted in a reduction in bacterial and fungal concentration, but only slightly in the reduction in exposure to airborne bioaerosols. Basic procedures such as keeping the cabins clean and tidy, using hand sanitizer multiple times a day, and using clean gloves every day could help with personal microbial reduction [47].…”