IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jwaste/v1y2022i1p7-104d987309.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Protecting Wastewater Workers by Categorizing Risks of Pathogen Exposures by Splash and Fecal-Oral Transmission during Routine Tasks

Author

Listed:
  • Rasha Maal-Bared

    (Quality Assurance and Environment, EPCOR Water Services Inc., EPCOR Tower, 2000, 10423-101 Street NW, Edmonton, AB T5H 0E8, Canada)

Abstract

Quantitative microbial risk assessments (QMRAs) present an opportunity to systematically assess risk to wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) workers and mitigate work-related infectious diseases. However, while QMRAs often explore the impacts of aeration or treatment mechanism, or the use of controls to mitigate risk (e.g., ventilation, personal protective equipment (PPE)), fewer studies address other variables, such as differing tasks across plants, time spent conducting these tasks or size of plant. QMRA approaches also vary substantially in their findings and recommendations. The objective of this paper is to provide a risk-based wastewater worker task characterization for urban, municipal and industrial WWTPs along with mitigation measures. Routine tasks fell into five categories in ascending order of exposure and risk, Type A being the lowest and Type E being the highest. Percentage of full-time equivalent time spent on each task category was estimated, along with amount of wastewater exposure (mL) and inhalation duration (h). Estimates differed between urban and municipal plants but were similar in industrial and municipal systems. Finally, a checklist was developed to identify potential mitigation measures and prioritize H&S solutions for eight inspected WWTPs. The present work provides practical information for job safety assessments, H&S policies and QMRA method refinement.

Suggested Citation

  • Rasha Maal-Bared, 2022. "Protecting Wastewater Workers by Categorizing Risks of Pathogen Exposures by Splash and Fecal-Oral Transmission during Routine Tasks," Waste, MDPI, vol. 1(1), pages 1-10, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jwaste:v:1:y:2022:i:1:p:7-104:d:987309
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2813-0391/1/1/7/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2813-0391/1/1/7/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Annalaura Carducci & Gabriele Donzelli & Lorenzo Cioni & Ileana Federigi & Roberto Lombardi & Marco Verani, 2018. "Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment for Workers Exposed to Bioaerosol in Wastewater Treatment Plants Aimed at the Choice and Setup of Safety Measures," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-12, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jamil Ahmed & Li Ping Wong & Yan Piaw Chua & Najeebullah Channa & Rasool Bux Mahar & Aneela Yasmin & James A. VanDerslice & Joshua V. Garn, 2020. "Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment of Drinking Water Quality to Predict the Risk of Waterborne Diseases in Primary-School Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-16, April.
    2. Mayerlin Sandoval Herazo & Graciela Nani & Florentina Zurita & Carlos Nakase & Sergio Zamora & Luis Carlos Sandoval Herazo & Erick Arturo Betanzo-Torres, 2022. "A Review of the Presence of SARS-CoV-2 in Wastewater: Transmission Risks in Mexico," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-22, July.
    3. Hamza Mbareche & Marc Veillette & Jonathan Pilote & Valérie Létourneau & Caroline Duchaine, 2019. "Bioaerosols Play a Major Role in the Nasopharyngeal Microbiota Content in Agricultural Environment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-22, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jwaste:v:1:y:2022:i:1:p:7-104:d:987309. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.