Occupational Risk Assessment in Landfills: Research Outcomes from Italy

Abstract

Industrial production has brought increased wellbeing in the last years, but the amount of solid waste has undoubtedly increased. Thus, open dumpsites and landfills have been created throughout the world, with serious impacts on the environment and public health. In such a context, occupational health and safety (OHS) issues related to workers that have to deal with landfill characterization or management have not been considered sufficiently. To reduce such a research gap, in 2019 a research project started in Italy on OHS risk assessment in landfills. In fact, in such facilities, workers can be subjected to direct contact with the polluted environment and might not be completely aware of the entity and type of pollution (e.g., in open dumpsites). Starting with the analysis of INAIL data on accidents at work which occurred in Italy during the period 2008–2019, a specific risk analysis was carried out with the goal of defining risk determinants and profiles by means of K-means cluster analysis. Such an analysis allowed us to recognize the use of work equipment and the work environment as the main determinants of the accidents on the one hand, and the “driver of the excavator” as the most risky activity on the other. The achieved results take a step forward towards the characterization of occupational health and safety issues in landfills. Accordingly, the research outcomes represent a basis on which to address further research work in this field.

Occupational Road Safety Management: A Preliminary Insight for a Landfill Remediation Site

“…Finally, this study relied on the matrix of descriptors [55,67], which allowed for transforming descriptive information on road accidents (derived from open data powered by public administration) into frequency data. Hence, a data-driven approach based on statistical techniques was shown to be able to manage risks in this specific field.…”

“…Cluster analysis was performed through the preliminary organization of the reference sample according to the model of the "matrix of descriptors". As explained by Lombardi et al [55], it allows for transforming categorical variables into algebraic vectors, which can be easily elaborated using statistical techniques. More in detail, the matrix of descriptors reported the influence (presence/absence) of selected determinants in the events through Boolean coefficients according to the following general rule: 0 stood for the absence of the determinant, while 1 indicated the presence of the determinant.…”

Spatial assessment of pollutants concentration in air and soils impacted by industrial wastes in lagos state, Nigeria

“…Lagos State in the South Western part of Nigeria is faced with the twin issues of population explosion and rapid urban development (Mogbojuri et al 2023). These problems are further exacerbated by the problem of poor urban waste management programs and the proliferation of illegal and unapproved dumpsites, which could potentially lead to unintended social and health consequences especially during remediation of illegal dumpsites (Lombardi et al 2021). Together these factors have caused a strain on the urban infrastructure in Lagos, such as the urban industrial waste infrastructure.…”