Occupation Health Risks Associated With Garbage Recycling At Dandora Dumpsite, Nairobi County, Kenya

Increased huge waste volumes are now a common phenomenon in many major world cities. This has resulted in management crisis due to costs and lack of disposal sites.  Most have resulted to recycling which exposes the workers to diverse health risks in the process of manual sorting out, scheming and separation of wastes. Kenya has no policies or guidelines addressing health issues in recycling work yet the national burden of occupational diseases and injuries remain unknown. Cases are not documented, due to lack of an occupational health programme addressing recycling. Promotion of healthy work (environments, practices and places) in line with the second WHO Global Strategy for Occupational Health and Safety is low or lacking (UN-Habitat, 2014). In observance of World Conventions, guidelines and standards in safe waste handling and its management, Kenya needs data available only through carrying out studies addressing all critical factors and aspects affecting recycling. This study was designed as an attempt to fill that gap. A descriptive cross sectional study, which evaluated the health risks associated with recycling, was carried out in Dandora, the main dumpsite in Nairobi County, Kenya. Only about 850 tons ofthe3,000 to 3,200 tons ofsolid waste generated daily by Nairobi’s 6.5 million people reach the dumpsite. Selected randomly and recruited in the study, were 240 recyclers from whom data was obtained using open and close-ended questionnaires. A significant association was found between sex of recyclers and marital status (χ2= 24.5, df = 3 P