Systematic review of epidemiological studies on health effects associated with management of solid waste

Abstract

BackgroundManagement of solid waste (mainly landfills and incineration) releases a number of toxic substances, most in small quantities and at extremely low levels. Because of the wide range of pollutants, the different pathways of exposure, long-term low-level exposure, and the potential for synergism among the pollutants, concerns remain about potential health effects but there are many uncertainties involved in the assessment. Our aim was to systematically review the available epidemiological literature on the health effects in the vicinity of landfills and incinerators and among workers at waste processing plants to derive usable excess risk estimates for health impact assessment.MethodsWe examined the published, peer-reviewed literature addressing health effects of waste management between 1983 and 2008. For each paper, we examined the study design and assessed potential biases in the effect estimates. We evaluated the overall evidence and graded the associated uncertainties.ResultsIn most cases the overall evidence was inadequate to establish a relationship between a specific waste process and health effects; the evidence from occupational studies was not sufficient to make an overall assessment. For community studies, at least for some processes, there was limited evidence of a causal relationship and a few studies were selected for a quantitative evaluation. In particular, for populations living within two kilometres of landfills there was limited evidence of congenital anomalies and low birth weight with excess risk of 2 percent and 6 percent, respectively. The excess risk tended to be higher when sites dealing with toxic wastes were considered. For populations living within three kilometres of old incinerators, there was limited evidence of an increased risk of cancer, with an estimated excess risk of 3.5 percent. The confidence in the evaluation and in the estimated excess risk tended to be higher for specific cancer forms such as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and soft tissue sarcoma than for other cancers.ConclusionsThe studies we have reviewed suffer from many limitations due to poor exposure assessment, ecological level of analysis, and lack of information on relevant confounders. With a moderate level confidence, however, we have derived some effect estimates that could be used for health impact assessment of old landfill and incineration plants. The uncertainties surrounding these numbers should be considered carefully when health effects are estimated. It is clear that future research into the health risks of waste management needs to overcome current limitations.

Herramientas Para La Evaluación De Riesgos Sobre El Ambiente Y Salud, Por La Disposición Final De Residuos Sólidos Urbanos

“…Varios estudios epidemiológicos llevados a cabo por diversos autores (Vrijheid et al 2002, Kloppenborg et al 2005, Porta et al 2009, Forastiere et al 2011, Pukkala 2014, Triassi et al 2015) para establecer el conocimiento sobre los efectos potenciales para la salud derivados de la exposición a los contaminantes de los SDF, concuerdan en que hay poca evidencia de una relación entre el riesgo de anomalías congénitas en la proximidad de las zonas aledañas a los SDF, pero sin una validación externa es difícil la interpretación de los métodos de evaluación potencial • Los motores de los vehículos utilizados en las maniobras para disponer los RSU en las celdas.…”

Prevalence of Accident at Work among garbage collectors in Asunción, Paraguay. 2013-2014

“…Existen pocos datos de como impactan las condición laborales y ambientales a los trabajadores que manipulan residuos en cualquier etapa de la gestión (generación, colecta, procesamiento, transporte y disposición final), la mayoría de las investigaciones se encaminan hacia el medioambiente y la comunidad (5).…”

Healthy Cities of Tomorrow: the Case for Large Scale Built Environment–Health Studies

“…Another set of studies have examined the role of specific hazardous environments including waste disposal sites and landfills [96,97] and powerlines [98,99]. The relationship of built environment design with road traffic fatalities and injuries forms another active domain of investigation [100][101][102].…”