Asbestos a Major Hazard for Sanitation Workers

The National Commission of Inquiry into the Worker Health and Safety Crisis in the Solid Waste Industry and the Teamsters Union this week released an alarming report which concludes that sanitation workers are ten times more likely to die on the job than an average worker. Sanitation workers also face several health and safety hazards, according to the report, including exposure to asbestos.

The NCI report is entitled “In Harm’s Way,” and includes analysis drawn from interviews with mechanics, solid waste drivers, and other sanitation workers employed at the largest waste management company in the country, Waste Management, Inc’, which employs around 50,000 people. In addition the report includes the results of an anonymous questionnaire that was distributed to hundreds of sanitation workers nationwide.

According to the report, “garbage collection is one of the most dangerous professions in the United States,” and “health and safety problems in this industry are at crisis proportions.” For sanitation workers, ever-present occupational hazards include “losing limbs in machinery, inhaling asbestos, [and] handling used medical needles and human feces

Sanitation workers admitted coming into contact with hazardous substances frequently. Respondents reported exposure to rotting meat, maggots, parasites, used syringes, medical waste, and asbestos.

More than 30% of respondents reported that they felt “choked by dust” five or more times every working day. Inhaling dust is a common hazard for sanitation workers, and up to 40% of workers reported suffering at least one symptom of dust inhalation. The composition of the dust-what the workers are actually breathing in-may be even more dangerous.

In fact, 31.1% of respondents reported being exposed to asbestos at least once within three months of completing the survey. Many sanitation workers say asbestos exposure is frequent enough that they worry about their long-term health.

According to one WMI mechanic, “There isn’t supposed to be any asbestos in our loads. But it happens all the time.” Another worker confirms this, saying it’s common for construction workers to use masks when working with asbestos, but roll-off drivers working at the same site rarely have masks or protective equipment. At the landfill, the worker said, the dust “goes in your eyes and all over.”

A retired former WMI employee who worked as a garbage collector for 23 years said “I’ve been out of the industry for several years, but I went to my doctor with a pulmonary [lung] problem.” The doctor diagnosed the man with pulmonary calcification, “probably from exposure to asbestos a long time ago.”

The former WMI worker recalled seeing asbestos in a load, and being ordered by his supervisor to handle it. The man also said, referring to safety procedures for sanitation workers, “We have guys dumping at the landfill. And 20 feet away, people [asbestos removal workers] are handling asbestos, digging into the landfill with a hoe and everything. They are wearing complete protective gear, masks, everything. But to our guys, [managers] say, ‘dump the load, keep working.’ And we have no protective gear whatsoever.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 5:05 pm and is filed under Asbestos Exposure, Jobsite Exposure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.