| Summary: | 碩士 === 長榮大學 === 職業安全與衛生學系碩士班 === 98 === City cleaning staffs are responsible for street neat and tidy in the city. At work, they not only have to carry trash following the dump truck along the street; but also have to clean the ditches and sweep the streets. This job, with working hours extending from day to evening, is an extremely physically exerted work. This study used public and private city cleaning staffs as research population to investigate their workplace hazard and health problems. A structured questionnaire was administered to the study population. Finally, three hundred and ninety three completed questionnaires were available for the data analysis. Data collected in the questionnaire included personal characteristics, job factors, workplace hazards and health problems. Prevalent rates for workplace hazards and health problems were first analyzed; and afterward Chi-square test was applied to analyze the relationship between personal characteristics, job factors, workplace hazards, and health problems.
Study results show that the most prominent self-reported health problems among city cleaning staffs were joint pain and soreness (19.6%), following by heat stroke (18.3%), common cold (17.3%), sweating (14.8%), and skin disease (14.5%). For workplace hazards, the five most reported hazards were: street crowded with people and cars (31.8%), narrow alley (26.2%), trash contamination (22.6%), little rest time (22.6%), and traffic noise (16.5%). For personal protective equipment (PPE), the most used PPE was reflective safety vest (81%), work uniform (64%), dusk mask (46%), clothed glove (46%), rubber glove (28%), and active carbon mask (26%).
Analysis also reveals that work type (driving, sweeping, carrying trash, cleaning ditches and replacement) was significantly different with many health problems, such as heat stroke, common cold, sweating, strong dazzling light, eye dazzling, decreased eyesight, burn, noise, hearing loss, joint pain and soreness, nerve injury, neck and shoulder injury, and insomnia.
For relationship between workplace hazards and health problems, it was found that eye problems were related to traffic dusk, chemical and biological contamination in trash and dazzling light; respiratory track problems were related to traffic dusk, chemical and biological contamination in trash; tinnitus and hearing loss was related to loud music conveying of the dump truck and traffic noise; body temperature associated symptoms were related to extreme environmental temperatures, biological contamination in trash and ditch cleaning; skin disease and erosion were related to chemical and biological contamination during trash collection; join pain and soreness was related to speeding of the dump truck, vibration, furniture carrying, trash collection and ditch cleaning; back pain and soreness and muscular skeletal problems were related to heavy weight carrying.
The work of cleaning staffs, that handle wastes and maintain the environment, is in the terminal end of our living environment. They face complicated environment where trash materials mix with harmful agents and the outdoor temperature vary extremely. Under such circumstances, personal protective equipments are observed relatively in shortage and even under improper usage condition. We suggest that environmental agencies should put more efforts in revising current occupational safety and health policy toward the city cleaning staffs and provide proper and sufficient personal protective equipment for their usage.
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