Mental Health Status of Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator Workers Compared with Local Government Office Workers

Abstract

Recently in Japan dioxin problem of municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI) became social issue. The news spread all around Japan and induced fear that workers at incinerators would suffer from cancer or other serious illness induced by the exposure to dioxins. Authors were interested in the effect of this stressful event occurred to the workers and intended to evaluate mental health status of MSWI workers compared with office workers. Subjects were male workers from two MSWI plants and a local government office; 20 government office workers who were engaging in health administration and 55 MSWI workers. Subjects were interviewed about their age, educational carrier, and working schedule. POMS and GHQ30 were used to evaluate mood status of subjects. There were differences in mood state between the two occupational groups. POMS showed that Tension-Anxiety, Depression-Dejection, and Fatigue levels were high in the health administration worker group. GHQ30 showed that General Illness, Social Dysfunction, and Anxiety and Dysphoria state were deviated to abnormal in the health administration worker group. General mental health status evaluated by GHQ30 score was also deviated to abnormal in the office worker group. Our results showed that mental health status of health administration workers was less healthy compared with MSWI workers. This meant that the stress of MSWI workers enhanced by the fear that they might have been exposed to dioxin did not exceed the stress the health administration workers usually had suffered from.

Psychological stress and associated factors among municipal solid waste collectors in Hanoi, Vietnam: A cross-sectional study

“…The higher prevalence of mental disorders in the Japanese study might be attributable to the study participants’ occupation. Incinerator workers were aware and afraid of their occupational exposure to extremely hazardous agents such as dioxin which are released during the incineration process [ 13 ]. This knowledge elevated self-perceived mental distress among Japanese MSW workers.…”

“…Although the mean score (standard deviation) of DASS-S among WCs in this study was moderate (9.7 ± 7.8), 4.1% and 3.1% of WCs showed moderate to severe levels of stress symptoms, respectively. Research on psychological stress among WCs has thus far been limited [4,[10][11][12][13]. Among them, only one study reported the prevalence of anxiety and depression among Japanese MSW incinerator workers, using the Japanese version of the Profile of Mood States Test [13].…”

“…Research on psychological stress among WCs has thus far been limited [4,[10][11][12][13]. Among them, only one study reported the prevalence of anxiety and depression among Japanese MSW incinerator workers, using the Japanese version of the Profile of Mood States Test [13]. Other studies investigated stressors [10,11] or the psychological work environment using the Job Content Questionnaires [4,12].…”

“…In our review of the literature, we found many reports of a variety of physical health problems among workers in this occupation, but few publications describing workers' exposure to work-related stressors [10][11][12] or their harsh work environment [4]. Only one paper reported multiple indicators of mental health status among Japanese MSW workers in 2019, including tension/anxiety (45.5%), depression-dejection (20.0%), or social dysfunction (18.2%) [13]. However, Japan's waste management system is highly developed with integrated approaches and advanced waste disposal techniques to reduce waste generation rate and support WCs [1].…”

The health impacts of waste incineration: a systematic review

“…Only one study investigated stress levels secondary to the fear of occupational exposure to dioxins among municipal solid waste incinerator workers, which was lower than the general stress experienced by office workers 87 …”