Systematic Review of Potential Occupational Respiratory Hazards Exposure Among Sewage Workers

Abstract

Background: Sewage workers have a higher risk of exposure to various potential occupational respiratory hazards found in sewage plants. Although previous studies discuss occupational respiratory hazard concentration impacting sewage workers' respiratory health, the results are scarce and mixed. Hence, there is a need to identify the potential respiratory hazards in sewage plants so as to clarify the short- and long-term respiratory health effects. Therefore, this systematic review (SR) aims to critically review previous studies investigating potential respiratory hazards found at sewage plants and their effects on sewage workers' respiratory health.Methods: An SR was conducted using PubMed, EBSCO Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar on peer-reviewed studies published between January 1994 and October 2020 evaluating the impact of potential exposure to respiratory hazards and its effects on respiratory health among sewage workers. “Sewage treatment plant,” “respiratory hazards,” and “respiratory health effects” were the three main search terms chosen in this SR. The inclusion criteria were (1) studies on potential occupational respiratory hazard exposure among sewage workers, (2) manuscripts written in English, and (3) studies published in the peer-reviewed literature. The human observational studies' quality was assessed using the Effective Public Health Practice Project Quality Assessment Tool.Results: We identified 5,660 articles through an initial database search. Only 26 items met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review; 15 human observational studies and 11 environmental assessment studies were conducted in the sewage industries. Most of the human observational studies were rated as moderate quality, two studies were rated as weak quality, and one study with strong quality was identified. Hydrogen sulfide, bioaerosols, particulate matter 2.5 (PM 2.5), and volatile organic compounds (VOC) were found to be potential respiratory hazards. Most of the risks contributed to adverse outcomes on the sewage workers' respiratory health with some inconsistent findings on the relationship between respiratory hazard exposure and respiratory health effects.Conclusion: Our review finds that, although this area is of great importance, quality studies are still lacking. There is a need for additional studies to clarify the effects of respiratory hazard exposure on sewage workers and respiratory health, especially PM 2.5 and VOC.

Scientometric evaluation of trends and global characteristics of published research on occupational public health

“…Spiegel with nine articles each. Thus, this type of study provides a panoramic view of scientific publications in each field of knowledge [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ].…”

Effects of Safety Climate and Employee Engagement towards Organisational Citizenship Behaviour of Sewage Workers

“…The results highlight that although the sewage cleaners are often employed based on contract and may not be in a position to demand more from the organisations, they do appreciate the organisational commitment in producing a safe workplace environment, and in return will demonstrate a higher engagement. Perhaps, the work environment which expose the sewage cleaners to various hazards such as chemicals and reagents, infectious wastewater stream and slip (Muzaini et al, 2021) contribute to a higher appreciation of safety climate amongst them. In a high-risk organisation such as this, workers may perceive safety climate as an important driver which can motivate them to support the functioning of the organisation positively in various ways, including engaging in OCB (Lu et al, 2017).…”

“…They were also reported to have shorter lifespan due to being exposed to poisonous gases and toxic elements. In America, it was found that more than 60 per cent of sewage workers experience respiratory problems, which had been found to be linked to the company's productivity (Muzaini et al, 2021).…”

Research progress on distribution and exposure risk of microbial aerosols in animal houses

“…According to Muzaini, workers working in sewage treatment plants face various health risks, among which lung-related diseases are one of the main health effects ( 79 ). Early studies on occupational exposure risk in a breeding environment showed that compared with ordinary farmers, farmers involved in poultry and pig breeding had a higher probability of suffering from respiratory diseases ( 80 , 81 ).…”