CENTRAL VOCATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

SCHOOL OF HEALTH SCIENCE

DIPLOMA PROGRAM IN PUBLIC HEALTH

COURSE TITLE: ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH AND SANITATION

PREPARED BY:

MAJIOK KOAK NYOACH (MSc.)

isaacmajiok84@gmail.com

FEBRUARY 2024

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN

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 Chapter one: Introduction

1.1 Environmental health

Environmental health addresses all the physical, chemical, and biological factors external to a person, and
all the related factors impacting behaviors. It encompasses the assessment and control of those
environmental factors that can potentially affect health. It is targeted towards preventing disease and
creating health-supportive environments. This definition excludes behavior not related to environment, as
well as behavior related to the social and cultural environment, and genetics.
The environment consists of all that you find in your surroundings. Of all factors affecting human health,
the environment has the greatest impact. There are many characteristics of the environment which include;
✓ Air
✓ Water
✓ Food
✓ Roads
✓ Wastes
✓ Vectors, etc. and all these may affect your health and wellbeing.
They may determine your risk of developing disease symptoms or even acute and chronic diseases in the
near or distant future, as well as the risk that successive generations will suffer from congenital
malformations, developmental disabilities and genetic health conditions.

1.2 Environment:
A. Refers to the surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates.
B. The natural world, as a whole or in a particular geographical area, especially as affected by human
activity
C. The sum total of all surroundings of a living organism, including natural forces and other living things,
which provide conditions for development and growth as well as of danger and damage.
D. The totality of circumstances surrounding an organism or group of organisms, especially; the
Combination of external physical conditions that affect and influence the growth, development, and
survival of organisms, and the complex of social and cultural conditions affecting the nature of an
individual or community.

1.3 Environmental health

Environmental health can be divided into five fields;
1. Environmental epidemiology, 4. Environmental engineering and
2. Environmental toxicology 5. Environmental law.
3. Environmental exposure science,

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Information from epidemiology, toxicology, and exposure science can be combined to conduct risk
assessments for risk factors to determine whether an exposure poses significant risk to human health. This
can in turn be used to develop and implement environmental health policy that, for example, regulates
chemical emissions, or imposes standards for proper sanitation. Actions of engineering and law can be
combined to provide risk management to minimize, monitor and otherwise manage the impact of exposure
to protect human health to achieve the objectives of environmental health policy.

1.4 What is Environmental health?

Environmental Health is an interdisciplinary academic field, an area of research, and an arena of applied
public health practice. Environmental health is a branch of public health which addresses all the
physical, chemical, and biological factors external to a person, and all the related factors impacting
behaviors. It encompasses the assessment and control of those environmental factors that can potentially
affect health. It is targeted towards preventing disease and creating health-supportive environments.

1.5 Driving Forces of Environmental Health

The DPSEEA (Driving forces Pressures State Exposure Effects Actions) model which was developed by
the World Health Organization is a tool both for analyzing environmental health hazards and for designing
indicators useful in decision making. The driving forces are the factors that motivate environmental health
processes. The driving forces result in pressures on the environment, such as the emission of air pollutants.
These emissions, in turn, modify the state of the environment, accumulating in the air and combining to
form additional pollutants such as ozone. However, this deterioration in the state of the environment does
not invariably threaten health; human exposure must occur. In the case of air pollutants, exposure occurs
when people are breathing when and where the air quality is low. The hazardous exposure may lead to a
variety of health effects, acute or chronic. In the case of air pollutants, these effects may include:
 Coughing and wheezing
 Asthma attacks
 Heart attacks and even early death.

Finally, to eliminate or control environmental hazards and protect human health, society may undertake a
wide range of actions, targeted at any of the upstream steps. For example, protecting the public from the
effects of air pollution might include;
 Encouraging energy conservation to reduce energy demand and designing live-work-play
communities to reduce travel demand (addressing driving forces);
 Providing mass transit or bicycle lanes to reduce driving, requiring emissions controls on power
plants, or investing in wind turbines to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants (addressing
pressures);

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  Requiring low-sulfur fuel (addressing the state of the environment);
 Warning people to stay inside when ozone levels are high (addressing exposures); and
 Providing maintenance asthma medications (addressing health effects).
 The most effective long-term actions, however, are those that are preventive, aimed at eliminating or
reducing the forces that drive the system.

CHAPTER TWO: CLASSIFICATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

2.1 Overview of the classification of the environmental health

Five basic disciplines generally contribute to the field of environmental health; environmental
epidemiology, environmental toxicology, exposure science, environmental engineering and environmental
law. Each of these disciplines contributes to describing or identifying environmental health problems and is
usually combined in order to achieve sustainable solutions to the problems. We will take a look at each one
of these disciplines in this unit.

2.2 Environmental Epidemiology

Environmental epidemiology is concerned with the discovery of the environmental exposures that
contributes to or protect against injuries, illnesses, developmental conditions, disabilities, and deaths; and
identification of public health and health care actions to manage the risks associated with harmful
exposures. Environmental epidemiology studies external factors that affect the incidence, prevalence, and
geographic range of health conditions. These factors may be naturally occurring or may be introduced into
environments where people live, work, and play.

Environmental exposures can be broadly categorized into those that are proximate (i.e. directly leading
health conditions) including chemicals, physical agents and microbiological pathogens, and those that are
distal, such as socioeconomic conditions, climate change, and other broad scale environmental changes.
Proximate exposures occur through air, food, water, and skin contact.

Distal exposures cause adverse health conditions directly by altering proximate exposures, and indirectly
through changes in ecosystems and other support systems for human health. Environmental epidemiology
research can inform risk assessments; development of standards and other risk management activities and
estimates of the co-benefits and co-harms of policies designed to reduce global environment change,
including policies implemented in other sectors (e.g. food and water) that can affect human health.

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2.2 Environmental Toxicology
Environmental toxicology is a multidisciplinary field of science concerned with the study of the harmful
effects of various chemical, biological and physical agents on living organisms. Toxicology studies how
environmental exposures lead to specific health outcomes, generally in animals, as a means to understand
possible health outcomes in humans. Toxicology has the advantage of being able to conduct randomized
controlled trials and other experimental studies because they can use animal subjects. An organism can be
exposed to toxicants at various stages of its life cycle. Harmful effects of such toxicants can affect an
organism and its community by reducing its species diversity and abundance. Such changes in population
dynamics affect the ecosystem by reducing its productivity and stability.

There are many sources of environmental toxicity that can lead to the presence of toxicants in our food,
water and air. These sources include organic and inorganic pollutants, pesticides and biological agents, all of
which can have harmful effects on living organisms. There can be so called point sources of pollution, for
instance the drains from a specific factory but also non-point sources like the rubber from car tires that
contain numerous chemicals and heavy metals that are spread in the environment.

2.3 Exposure Science

Exposure science is the study of an organism's (usually human) contact with chemical, physical, biological
agents or other health risk (e.g. accidents) occurring in their environments, and advances knowledge of the
mechanisms and dynamics of events either causing or preventing adverse health outcomes. Exposure
science studies human exposure to environmental contaminants by both identifying and quantifying
exposures. Exposure science has the advantage of being able to very accurately quantify exposures to
specific chemicals, but it does not generate any information about health outcomes like environmental
epidemiology or toxicology.

Exposure science can be used to support environmental epidemiology by better describing environmental
exposures that may lead to a particular health outcome, identify common exposures whose health outcomes
may be better understood through a toxicology study, or can be used in a risk assessment to determine
whether current levels of exposure might exceed recommended levels. Exposure science plays a
fundamental role in the development and application of epidemiology, toxicology, and risk assessment. It
provides critical information for protecting human and ecosystem health.

Exposure science also has the ability to play an effective role in other fields, including environmental
regulation, urban, traffic safety and ecosystem planning, and disaster management; in many cases these are

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untapped opportunities. Exposure science links human and ecologic behavior to environmental processes in
such a way that the information generated can be used to mitigate or prevent future adverse exposures

2.4 Environmental Engineering

Environmental engineering is concerned with the application of scientific and engineering principles for
protection of human populations from the effects of adverse environmental factors; protection of
environments, both local and global, from potentially deleterious effects of natural and human activities and
improvement of environmental quality. Environmental engineering can also be described as a branch of
applied science and technology that addresses the issues of energy preservation, protection of assets and
control of waste from human and animal activities.

Furthermore, it is concerned with finding plausible solutions in the field of public health, such as waterborne
diseases, implementing laws which promote adequate sanitation in urban, rural and recreational areas. It
involves waste water management, air pollution control, recycling, waste disposal, radiation protection,
industrial hygiene, animal agriculture, environmental sustainability, public health and environmental
engineering law. It also includes studies on the environmental impact of proposed construction projects.

2.5 Environmental Law

Environmental law includes the network of treaties, statutes, and regulations, common and customary laws
addressing the effects of human activity on the natural environment. Information from epidemiology,
toxicology, and exposure science can be combined to conduct a risk assessment for specific chemicals,
mixtures of chemicals or other risk factors to determine whether an exposure poses significant risk to human
health (exposure would likely result in the development of pollution-related diseases.

This can in turn be used to develop and implement environmental health policy that, for example, regulates
chemical emissions, or imposes standards for proper sanitation. Actions of engineering and law can be
combined to provide risk management to minimize, monitor, and otherwise manage the impact of exposure
to protect human health to achieve the objectives of environmental health policy. Customary international
law is an important source of international environmental law.

These are the norms and rules that countries follow as a matter of custom and they are so prevalent that they
bind all states in the world. Numerous legally binding international agreements encompass a wide variety of
issue-areas, from terrestrial, marine and atmospheric pollution through to wildlife and biodiversity
protection. International environmental agreements are generally multilateral treaties. Protocols are
subsidiary agreements built from a primary treaty. They exist in many areas of international law but are
especially useful in the environmental field, where they may be used to regularly incorporate recent

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scientific knowledge. They also permit countries to reach agreement on a framework that would be
contentious if every detail were to be agreed upon in advance. The most widely known protocol in
international environmental law is the Kyoto Protocol, which followed from the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change.

CHAPTER THREE: WASH PROMOTION

3.1 What is Wash promotion?

Every one wishes to enjoy good health and live a long life but this is rarely a reality. Because we live in a
world full of germs that cause diseases, our bodies are often sick. When this happens, we always go to a
medical doctor who diagnoses the illness and prescribes some medicine so that we get better again. We
wouldn't have to go to a doctor if we could just prevent some diseases from attacking our bodies.

The Minimum Standards for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion (WASH) are a practical
expression of the shared principles and commitments of Communities, Government institutions,
humanitarian organizations and the common principles, rights and duties for the betterment of living
condition. An adequate quantity of safe water is necessary to prevent death due to dehydration, to reduce the
risk of dehydration borne diseases, and finally to guarantee the hygienic requirements for the consumption,
cooking, personal and domestic use of said water.

The right to water and sanitation is inextricably linked to other human rights, including the right to health,
the right to housing and the right to adequate food. As such, it constitutes one of the essential preconditions
for human survival. Hygiene Promotion is pivotal to a successful WASH intervention. Effective Hygiene
Promotion is based on dialogue and interaction with affected communities; working in partnership with
them forms the basis of effective and well-arranged standard.

Preventative services, according to primary health care, are those health services that help to keep people
from getting sick. They have been outlined as being: immunization, maternal and child health care, and
hygiene promotion. If a community has access to reliable water supply and sanitation facilities, many
diseases will be significantly reduced. Supply of water and sanitation facilities may not eliminate all
diseases, but they will reduce the incidence of water-related diseases. The key to achieving this is to educate
the community on how to use these water and sanitation facilities in a proper way. This is done through
awareness sessions on various diseases that can be transmitted through contaminated water, poor disposal of
stools and any type of waste in the environment.

3.2 Hygiene and sanitation promotion

 What is Hygiene?

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Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases.
Hygiene Promotion is the planned, systematic attempt to enable people to take action to prevent or mitigate
water, sanitation, and hygiene related diseases and provides a practical way to facilitate community
participation and accountability in emergencies. Hygiene promotion is the term used to describe the
activities that aim to encourage a change in behavior with the ultimate goal of preventing water and
sanitation related diseases. Behaviors promoted through hygiene awareness activities help keep people and
their environment clean and healthy. The main purpose of hygiene promotion is to encourage virtuous
changes in people to reduce or eliminate high-risk unsanitary behaviors and to encourage the adoption of
appropriate behaviors. Hygiene promotion involves ensuring that people make the best use of the water,
sanitation and hygiene-enabling facilities and services provided and includes the effective operation and
maintenance of the facilities.

 Why hygiene is important?

Diarrhoea is one of the top three killer diseases in developing countries, claiming the lives of more than
three million children a year. Improved Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) conditions can prevent a
large proportion of diarrheal diseases. The best way to protect people from diarrhoeal diseases is to keep the
people’s living space free from germs that cause diseases.

 What is sanitation?
Sanitation involves improving access to, and use of latrines in order to separate faeces and infectious
material away from people, and to prevent flies from breeding. It’s the method or practices done by
individual or communities in order to keep their environment or living space clean and free from vectors
and germs. Improvement in WASH services must also be accompanied by improved hygiene behaviour,
which is why health education is important. Hygiene and sanitation practices are greatly influenced by
attitudes and behaviour of individual, family or community. Health education and hygiene promotion are
therefore designed to empower individuals, groups and communities to participate fully and to critically
think and make appropriate decisions to change behaviours and practice good desirable habits conducive to
health.

The three key factors for effective Hygiene and Sanitation include;

✓ Mutual sharing of information and knowledge

✓ The mobilization of affected communities
✓ The provision of essential materials and facilities

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 CHAPTER FOUR: DOMAIN OF HYGIENE AND SANITATION

4.1 Personal Hygiene

Personal hygiene involves caring for oneself and keeping clean the hands, eyes, mouth, skin, armpits, nose,
clothes and beddings as well as private parts to avoid bad odor and reduce the risk of disease. Handwashing
with soap or ash is among the most effective and cheapest way to prevent diarrhoeal diseases which together
are responsible for the majority of child deaths. Handwashing with soap helps reduce the incidence of
diarrhoeal disease by more than 40%. Hands readily become contaminated with faecal material after anal
cleansing or after cleaning children’s bottoms and stool. Rinsing fingers with water is not enough to remove
sticky particles which contain germs.

4.2 What waste products are generated?

The different sanitation systems generate the following products:

Blackwater is the mixture of urine, faeces and Faecal sludge is the general term for the
flushing water along with anal cleansing water (if undigested or partially digested slurry or solid
anal cleansing is practiced) or dry cleansing resulting from the storage or treatment of black
material (e.g. toilet paper). water or excreta.

Greywater is used water generated through

Domestic wastewater comprises all sources of
bathing, hand-washing, cooking or laundry. It is
liquid household waste: black water and greywater.
sometimes mixed or treated along with blackwater
However, it generally does not include storm water.

Urine is the liquid not mixed with any faeces or

water. Brown water is Blackwater without urine. Storm water in a community settlement is runoff
Beige water is anal cleansing water. It is generated from house roofs, paved areas and roads during
by those who use water rather than dry material rainfall events. It also includes water from the
for anal cleansing. catchment of a stream or river upstream of a
Faeces refer to (semi-) solid excrement without community settlement.
any urine or water

Excreta are the mixture of urine and faeces not

mixed with any flushing water (although small
amounts of anal cleansing water may be included).

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  Step of handwashing:
Step 1: Wet hands with running water

Step 2: Apply soap

Step 3: Rub your hands vigorously to produce foam. Do not forget to rub the backs of hands, between
fingers, under fingernails and wrists.

Step 4: Do not forget to clean nails

Step 5: Rinse away all soap

Step 6: Dry hands completely

4.3 Food Hygiene

Food hygiene involves keeping food clean and free from contamination and spoilage. It is important to
protect food against contamination and spoilage at all stages: collection, storage, preparation, cooking and
serving. In particular, it is important to wash or cook food before eating to kill or wash away any harmful
germs. Foodborne illness also known as foodborne disease or food poisoning is any illness resulting from
the consumption of contaminated food, pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites that contaminate food, as
well as chemical or natural toxins such as poisonous mushrooms.

Example of food borne illness includes:

A. Bacteria – Vibro, salmonella, E. coli, shigellosis

B. Viruses – Hepatitis, poliomyelitis
C. Parasites – Taeniasis, cysticercosis

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4.4 Environmental Hygiene
Environmental hygiene involves keeping home environment clean and free from vectors. Environmental
hygiene encompasses solid waste management, liquid waste management and vector control. Vectors of
public health importance include housefly, mosquito, tsetse fly, blackfly and lice. Many of these vectors
are associated with, or breed nearby waste. Waste is defined as any unwanted residue, dirty water or liquid
of no use, remains, leftovers, discarded materials or by-products that are no longer needed by the initial user
or producer. The major goals of proper waste management and disposal include;

 Prevention of infectious diseases

 Maintaining of a clean environment for quality living standard
 Encouragement of resource recovery through salvaging
 Prevention of water, land and air contamination
 Reduction of the rate of fly, rats/mice, mosquitoes and other vectors and hosts breeding and
spreading the diseases in the area.
Solid waste is classified under domestic waste, street waste, commercial waste industrial waste, agricultural
waste and medical/hospital waste. Disposal methods include burning, composting, incineration and burying.

4.5 Water Hygiene

Everyone has the right to safe drinking water. This is true in stability and crisis, in urban and rural contexts,
and in every country in the world. When children do not have access to safe drinking water, it negatively
impacts their health, nutrition, education and every other aspect of their life. Girls, women and people living
with disabilities are particularly affected. However, today 2.2 billion people lack access to safe water and
are forced to rely on potentially contaminated sources or to purchase water from unregulated vendors,
putting their health and safety at risk.

Millions of people depend on water sources that are at a high or moderate risk of faecal contamination due
to a lack of poor sanitation or sewage systems. Even water that is safe at source (for example, from a water
treatment plant or well) is at risk of being contaminated if it is not treated, transported, stored and handled
safely.

Water that is contaminated with faeces (or stool) can pose a severe risk to health, and is responsible for the
spread of diseases such as Acute Water Diarrhoea (AWD), Cholera, Typhoid, Bacillary and Amoebic
Dysentery, Poliomyelitis among others. Water must therefore be from a safe and reliable source and should
be treated kill micro-organisms before consumption. Hygiene should be observed during collection,
transportation and storage of water to prevent contamination.

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Water gets contaminated through:

✓ Leakages in pipes and openings in the water tanks

✓ Cracks and openings on slabs around the hand pumps
✓ Spillage of engine oils and grease from gen-sets
✓ Run-off from rain water and animal droppings
✓ Bathing and washing clothes around the water source

4.6 What measures can be taken to prevent water and environmental contamination?
The following are some of the measures that are necessary for maintaining safety of water and environment;

✓ Regular checks and inspection of pipes for breaks and leaks.

✓ Regular cleaning of water reservoirs/ tanks.
✓ Regular cleaning of water storage and handling containers at household level.
✓ Treatment of water with chlorine
✓ Cleaning of water slabs around the tap stands and draining off waste water.
✓ Building latrines away from water sources.
✓ Providing lids/covers on water storage tanks.
✓ Fencing of open water sources to prevent animals from entering.
✓ Water that is obtained from unsafe water source, such as a stream, or an open well will require
treatment at the household level prior to drinking to make it safe from germs. Examples of this
include:
o Boiling water: water should be at a rolling boil for at least 3 minutes.
o Chemical treatment: Chlorine powder, Aquatab, PUR. Water should sit for at least 30 minutes before
consumption.
o Solar disinfection: Sunlight contains Ultraviolet Rays which can destroy or kill germs: Let water sit in
direct sunlight in clear bottles for at least 5 hours.

CHAPTER FIVE: DISEASES RELATED TO HYGIENE AND SANITATION

5.1 Understanding the transmission methods of Diseases

There are many diseases that are associated with poor hygiene and sanitation practices and poor management of liquid
and solid waste. The most common diseases are diarrheal diseases transmitted by human excreta or faeces containing
harmful organisms that come into contact with people through touching of faeces, eating food contaminated with
faeces and drinking of contaminated water. In addition, some diseases are prevalent due to poor management of water.
The sections below will discuss the risk factors associated with poor practices around water, sanitation and hygiene,
and how to prevent them.

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5.2 Water borne diseases
Diarrheal diseases contribute largely to child mortality and morbidity globally. They pose a particular risk especially
in low income Countries where infrastructure is poor, and many people may be suffering from malnutrition. This
diseases result when water, food or fluids is contaminated with pathogens, commonly from faecal matter. Diseases
that are contracted as a consequence of consumption of unsafe water may lead to diarrhea and loss of fluid in the body
causing dehydration and malnutrition. Water borne diseases include diarrhoea, cholera, amoebiasis, Typhoid &
bacillary dysentery and Hepatitis A. Prevention and control is through treating water prior to drinking it and proper
food, water and environmental hygiene.

Figure 1: Hygiene and sanitation promotion in Community

5.3 Vector-borne diseases

Vector-borne diseases are spread by biting insects, such as mosquitoes, sand fly or tsetse fly that rely on
water for breeding. Diseases spread from these bites include:

✓ Malaria
✓ Yellow fever
✓ River blindness and
✓ Filariasis among others.

Filariasis and malaria are spread by mosquito vectors. Onchocerciasis is spread by the black fly that breeds
in fast flowing water and leads to river blindness. Schistosomiasis or Bilharzia, which is transmitted by
infected snails that live in reeds along rivers and lakes, is caused by a parasitic worm infection. It causes
swollen stomach, tiredness, poor growth and development in children, and later in life more severe
complications caused by fibrosis of the affected organs.

Snails are infected from people who have an infection defecating or urinating near to a water source where
snails live. Prevention and control of these vector borne diseases is through draining stagnant water, indoor
residual spraying, larviciding and sleeping under Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLITNs) In the
case of onchocerciasis, active removal of fly breeding sites is required.

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 Figure 2: Sleeping under mosquito net to protect against vector bite
5.4 WASH in disease outbreaks

Community involvement remains a key component of the epidemic response to prevent the spread of the
disease. The perceptions and beliefs that exist in the community can support or hinder a response, so it is
important to understand and address them. Some social norms may need to be changed to prevent
transmission of the disease. It is essential to promote specific measures for the prevention and treatment of
diseases in the affected community, such as the use of a face mask and physical distancing spacing to stop
the transmission of Covid-19. It is not always possible to intervene on all components of WASH. It is
necessary to focus on the immediate risk to public health and build trust and accountability with
communities. To respond to a pandemic, the World health organization proposes a series of actions in the
preparation and concrete response to the emergency to ensure the prevention and control of infections in
healthcare centres and communities.

The provision of clean drinking water and sanitation and the management of medical waste in healthcare
facilities are essential to provide quality healthcare services, protect patients, healthcare professionals and
staff, and prevent further transmission. During an infectious disease epidemic, services must meet minimum
quality standards and be separate for infected and uninfected patients. Support must be provided to ensure
that services are not interrupted and that products such as alcohol-based soap and hand sanitizers are
available. Temporary healthcare centres and quarantine sites should also provide these services. Promote
hand washing, food hygiene and safe water practices. Hand washing and hygiene materials may include
providing fixed and portable handwashing facilities, purchasing alcohol-based soap and hand sanitisers,
providing water for handwashing and water treatment at the point of use.

Proven behaviour changing techniques can help increase the frequency and improve the practice of critical
hygiene behaviours. The rapid, low-cost provision of water services for communities, healthcare centres
and schools that currently lack access to a reliable and safe water supply is essential to enable handwashing,
hygiene and disinfection. It is important to provide quick and timely access points for community

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water/water kiosks (which may include the supply of soap) in unserved urban and rural areas and for
unserved healthcare centres and schools. This would include:

 Supply and operation of compact water treatment plants;

 Construction and management of water points to supply water to strategic urban or rural points;
 Supply and operation of water delivery trucks (bottled, bagged) and tankers, including adequate
water storage for service operators.

5.5 Useful indicators

Availability of water

 Quantity of water sufficient for the different uses

 Location and number of water points
 Ratio between water points and patients or beds
Availability of toilets

 Location and number of toilets

 Ratio between toilets and patients or beds
Accessibility to toilets:

 Distance of the toilets from the consultation areas

Availability of handwashing/hygiene services:

 Location and number of handwashing/hygiene stations

 Ratio between handwashing/hygiene stations and patients or beds
Availability of waste management

 Location and number of waste bins and receptacles

 Ratio between waste bins and patients or beds
Accessibility of waste:

 Bins out of the reach of children

Waste quality:

 Fenced waste storage area

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 CHAPTER SIX: WORKPLACE HAZARDS AND HEALTH

6.1 Overview of workplace hazard and health

Workers are exposed to various hazards in the course of earning their living. These hazards can sometimes
result in harmful situations that may even cause permanent injury or death to the worker. Thus, the work
environment should be set up and assessed in order to ensure the health and safety of workers.

6.2 Hazards
A hazard is a condition or an event that can cause harm if not controlled. The harm is the outcome that
results from an uncontrolled hazard. A risk is a combination of the probability that a particular outcome will
occur and the severity of the harm involved. Although work provides many economic and other benefits, a
wide array of workplace hazards also present risks to the health and safety of people at work. These include
but are not limited to; chemicals, biological agents, physical factors, adverse ergonomic conditions,
allergens, a complex network of safety risks and a broad range of psychosocial risk factors.

1. Physical Hazards:
Physical hazards affect many people in the workplace. Machines have moving parts, sharp edges, hot
surfaces and other hazards with the potential to crush, burn, cut, shear, and stab or wound workers if used
unsafely. Falls are also a common cause of occupational injuries and fatalities, especially in construction,
extraction, transportation, healthcare, and building cleaning and maintenance.

2. Biological hazards (biohazards)

Biological hazards include infectious microorganisms such as viruses and toxins produced by those
organisms. Biohazards affect workers in many industries. Outdoor workers, including farmers, landscapers,
and construction workers, risk exposure to numerous biohazards, including animal bites and stings, toxins
from poisonous plants and diseases transmitted through animals. Health care workers, including veterinary
health workers, risk exposure to blood-borne pathogens and various infectious diseases especially those that
are emerging.
3. Chemical Hazards:
Dangerous chemicals can pose hazards in the workplace. There are many classifications of hazardous
chemicals, including:
 Neurotoxins,  Reproductive toxins
 Immune agents  Systemic toxins
 Dermatologic agents  Asthmagens
 Carcinogens  Pneumoconiotic agents, and sensitizers.

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There is some evidence that certain chemicals are harmful at lower levels when mixed with one or more
other chemicals. This may be particularly important in causing cancer. Regulatory agencies set occupational
exposure limits to mitigate the risk of chemical hazards.

4. Psychosocial hazards:
Psychosocial hazards include risks to the mental and emotional well-being of workers, such as feelings of
job insecurity, long work hours, and poor work-life balance.

6.3 Risk assessment

Hazard analysis is an important step in the overall risk assessment and risk management process. It is where
individual work hazards are identified, assessed and controlled/eliminated as close to source (location of the
hazard) as reasonably as possible. In some climes, risk assessment is required by legislation before
interventions are carried out.
This assessment should:
 Identify the hazards
 Identify all affected by the hazard and how
 Evaluate the risk
 Identify and prioritize appropriate control measures

The information that needs to be gathered from sources should apply to the specific type of work from
which the hazards can come from. Examples of these sources include interviews with people who have
worked in the field of the hazard, history and analysis of past incidents and official reports of work and the
hazards encountered. Of these, personnel interviews may be the most critical in identifying undocumented
practices, events, releases, hazards and other relevant information. The assessment should be recorded and
reviewed periodically and whenever there is a significant change to work practices. The assessment should
include practical recommendations to control the risk.

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 CHAPTER SEVEN: WASTE MANAGEMENT AND POLLUTION CONTROL
7.1 The waste
The term ‘waste’ refers to solid or liquid matter which does not have any economic value. Waste was an
early problem of mankind, and a growing one that is of major concern to every nation of the world. Waste is
any material lacking direct value to the user and so must be disposed of, including food, leaves, newspapers,
bottle, construction debris and chemical from a factory, bottles, boxes, hospital wastes and etcetera.
Increased amount of solid and liquid wastes is being generated as result of rapid rate of urbanization and
economic growth in many places is one of the leading problems in the World. The poor disposal,
management and handling of waste thus lead to environmental degradation, destruction of ecosystem and
poses great risks to public health. Poor management of waste is one of the main causes of environmental
pollution, health factor and degradation in many towns and cities, especially in developing countries. Many
of these towns and cities lack solid waste regulations and proper disposal facilities, including the harmful
wastes

7.2 Risk factors of waste disposal system associated to human health and environmental pollution

Poor waste management may have a greater health impacts, environmental pollution and economic
problems. Improper disposal of wastes whether solid or liquid wastes always post health and social threat to
the nearby community which could lead to the spread of different types of infectious diseases and toxic
chemicals.

Problems related to air pollution result as burning of trashes and release of exhaust gases from cars that
then results in releasing too much greenhouse gases in the air which can easily destroy the layers of the
atmosphere, second is the problem in land pollution if we don’t have a healthy soil that can be used for
planting plants or trees due to the chemicals that already killed the fertility of the soil due to the harmful
chemicals that comes from the garbage’s the world will suffer from lacking of filtered soil.

7.3 Types of wastes, (dry waste and wet waste (refuse)

Dry waste is waste that is dry and uncontaminated. Recyclables such as wastepaper, metal cans, plastic
bottles, floppy disks, batteries, glass bottles, old clothes, baskets, pen sandshoes are all dry waste, from
which we can sort out many useful materials for recycling. Wet waste (refuse) is dirty waste that is not
accepted in the dry waste bag. It includes food waste contaminated paper and tissue containers with foods
craps diapers and used personal hygiene items, etc. Generally, waste could be liquid or solid Waste. Both of
them could be hazardous. Liquid and solid waste types canal so be grouped into organic, re-usable and
recyclable Waste.
Liquid type: Waste can come in non-solid form. Some solid waste can also be converted to a Liquid waste
form for disposal. It includes point source and non-point source discharges storm water and wastewater.

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Examples of liquid waste include wash water from homes liquids used for cleaning in industries and waste
detergents
Solid type: Solid waste predominantly, is any garbage, refuse or rubbish that we make in our homes and
other places. These include old car tires, old newspapers, broken furniture and even food waste. They may
include any waste that is non-liquid.
Hazardous type: Hazardous or harmful waste are those that potentially threaten public health or the
environment. Such waste could be inflammable (can easily catch fire), reactive (can easily. explode),
corrosive (can easily eat through metal) or toxic (poisonous to human and animals). In many countries, it is
required by law to involve the appropriate authority to supervise the disposal of such hazardous waste.
Examples include fire extinguishers, old propane tanks, pesticides, mercury-containing equipment (e.g.
Thermostats) and lamps (e.g. fluorescent bulbs) and batteries.
Organic type: Organic waste comes from plants or animal’s sources. Commonly, they include food waste,
fruits and vegetable peels, flower trimmings etc. They are biodegradable (this means that they are easily
broken down by other organism over time and turned into manure).many people turn their organic waste
into compost and use them in their garden.
Recyclable types: Recycling is processing used materials (waste) into new, useful products.
This is done to reduce the use of raw material that would have been used.

7.4 Waste management

Proper sanitation and excreta disposal is important to the health of populations and is an important
component of public health. Epidemics have occurred due to poor sanitation and excreta disposal. Pathogens
and their vectors thrive in unsanitary conditions and these can contaminate food and water that is consumed.
In this unit, we will consider what proper sanitation and excreta disposal entails and also look at various
types and methods of sanitation systems and excreta disposal. A sanitation system includes the capture,
storage, transport, treatment and disposal or reuse of human waste. There are many different sanitation
technologies, processes and approaches. Some examples are container-based sanitation, community-led total
sanitation, ecological sanitation, emergency sanitation, environmental sanitation, onsite sanitation and
sustainable sanitation.

Waste management is the collection transport, processing or disposal managing and monitoring of waste
materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the process is generally
undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics. Waste management is a distinct
practice from resource recovery. This focuses on delaying the rate of Consumption of natural resources. All
waste materials, whether they are solid, liquid, gaseous or radioactive fall within the remit of waste
management.

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Incineration method of waste management: This simply means burning waste. This method is common in
countries with limited landfill space. Incineration chambers can be small for domestic use, but there are
large ones for municipal use as well. Modern incineration processes are more efficient and release less
dioxin than home fire places and backyard barbecues.
Sanitary Landfills; Generally, this term means a large piece of land away from living places where all the
waste from a town is deposited but there is more to landfills. Proper landfill management involves sorting
out all the waste (waste separation) and sending only the waste that cannot be recycled and composted to the
site
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle: Learn how reducing, reusing, and recycling can help you, your community,
and the environment by saving money, energy, and natural resources. Effective recycling starts with
household (or the place where the waste was created).
Wastewater management: Involve treatment through primary, secondary and tertiary treatment before its
released or discharged into the environment.

7.4 Types of Sanitation Systems in waste management

 Basic sanitation: This is defined as the use of improved sanitation facilities that are not shared with
other households.
 Container-based sanitation: Container-based sanitation (CBS) refers to a sanitation system where
human excreta are collected in sealable, removable containers that are transported to treatment facilities
e.g. portable toilets.
 Ecological sanitation (ECOSAN): Ecological sanitation systems safely recycle excreta resources to
crop production in such a way that the use of non-renewable resources is minimized. When properly
designed and operated, ECOSAN systems provide a hygienically safe, economical and closed-loop
system to convert human excreta into nutrients to be returned to the soil and water to be returned to the
land.
 Emergency sanitation: Emergency sanitation is required in situations including natural disasters and
relief for refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). There are three phases; immediate, short
term and long term. In the immediate phase, the focus is on managing open defecation, and toilet
technologies might include pit latrines and container-based toilets. Providing handwashing facilities and
management of fecal sludge are also part of emergency sanitation.
 Environmental sanitation: Environmental sanitation encompasses the control of environmental factors
that are connected to disease transmission. This includes solid waste management, water and wastewater
treatment, industrial waste treatment and noise and pollution control.
The primary responsibility of the industrial hygienist is as follows:
 To protect the health of the employees.

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 To maintain an objective attitude towards anticipation, recognition, evaluation and control of health
hazards.
 To council employees regarding the health hazards and the necessary precaution to avoid adverse
health effects.
 To respect confidences, advise honestly, and report findings and recommendations accurately.
 To act responsibly in the application of industrial hygiene principles toward the attainment of a
healthful working environment.

“Health is wealth”
Environmental health and positive sanitation system are the backbone of the Country prosperity and
wellbeing.

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