Workers in solid waste management and remediation face a variety of dangers—excessive noise, poor ergonomics, pollution and extreme weather, among others—in addition to regular exposure to a broad range of biohazards and chemicals. As a result, they experience higher rates of injuries and illnesses compared to workers across all private industries.

Until now, little was known about how the half a million waste workers in the United States view their jobs and the numerous work-related factors that affect their physical and mental well-being.

To fill this gap, two researchers from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health—Aurora Le, Ph.D., an associate professor of health behavior, and Shawn Gibbs, Ph.D., dean and professor of occupational health—and two colleagues from the University of Michigan completed a descriptive, cross-sectional pilot study that was published in Scientific Reports.

"Our study was the first to analyze the perceptions of waste workers in the United States in two critical areas," Le said. "The first dealt with these workers' psychosocial environment—the interrelation between psychological and social factors that affect physical and mental well-being—and the second dealt with their organizational health—employer-provided factors such as leadership and safety climate that likewise affect worker health."

The researchers used the INPUTS survey, a large-scale, population-based survey developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Healthy Worksite Program to survey 68 solid waste workers aged 18 and above in the fall of 2021.

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