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

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.

Social Life Cycle Assessment of Mexico City's Water Cycle

“…Nevertheless, the results were consistent with WHO at the national level. [77] The results in the local communities of Villa Victoria and Atotonilco de Tula were consistent with the prosperous cities index of ONU-HABITAT, which considers Villa Victoria with access to water as weak. [86] At the same time, Atotonilco de Tula scored very strongly.…”

“…Giving to the telephone survey, 11% of the households consumed water from water trucks, which represents a cost of $US 20.8 per month, more than the amount calculated by the World Health Organization (WHO) ($US15.42) at the national level. [ 77 ] Another point was about bottled water consumption and water quality.…”