• Title/Summary/Keyword: Garbage workers

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Mercury Exposure among Garbage Workers in Southern Thailand

  • Decharat, Somsiri
    • Safety and Health at Work
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    • v.3 no.4
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    • pp.268-277
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    • 2012
  • Objectives: 1) To determine mercury levels in urine samples from garbage workers in Southern Thailand, and 2) to describe the association between work characteristics, work positions, behavioral factors, and acute symptoms; and levels of mercury in urine samples. Methods: A case-control study was conducted by interviewing 60 workers in 5 hazardous-waste-management factories, and 60 matched non-exposed persons living in the same area of Southern Thailand. Urine samples were collected to determine mercury levels by cold-vapor atomic absorption spectrometer mercury analyzer. Results: The hazardous-waste workers' urinary mercury levels (10.07 ${\mu}g/g$ creatinine) were significantly higher than the control group (1.33 ${\mu}g/g$ creatinine) (p < 0.001). Work position, duration of work, personal protective equipment (PPE), and personal hygiene, were significantly associated with urinary mercury level (p < 0.001). The workers developed acute symptoms - of head-aches, nausea, chest tightness, fatigue, and loss of consciousness at least once a week - and those who developed symptoms had significantly higher urinary mercury levels than those who did not, at p < 0.05. A multiple regression model was constructed. Significant predictors of urinary mercury levels included hours worked per day, days worked per week, duration of work (years), work position, use of PPE (mask, trousers, and gloves), and personal hygiene behavior (ate snacks or drank water at work, washed hands before lunch, and washed hands after work). Conclusion: Changing garbage workers' hygiene habits can reduce urinary mercury levels. Personal hygiene is important, and should be stressed in education programs. Employers should institute engineering controls to reduce urinary mercury levels among garbage workers.

Behavior-induced Disposable Cup Automatic Separation X-Bin Study

  • LEE, Su-Min;KIM, Seo-Hyun;KIM, Ye-Na;BYUN, Hyo-Jeong;KWON, Lee-Seung;JUNG, Min-Jae;KWON, Woo-Taeg
    • Journal of Wellbeing Management and Applied Psychology
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    • v.4 no.1
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    • pp.19-25
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    • 2021
  • Purpose: This study seeks to develop behavior-induced automatic separation X-Bin for disposable cup speculators. Some students throw away the contents. Research design, data and methodology: Therefore, environmental beautification workers spend a lot of time sorting disposable cups at school garbage collection sites. Disposable cups that have been thrown away like this are bad in terms of appearance and smell. In addition, cleaning inside garbage affects recycling rates and is closely related to environmental problems. Results: Clean cleaning reduces the amount of garbage incinerated without being recycled and reduces the cost of recycling. According to Korean Social Trends 2020, COVID-19 began to spread, and recycling of disposable items such as disposable cups increased by about 15 percent from the same period last year. Conclusions: These are classified for recycling, and the amount of garbage thrown on the streets is estimated to be larger. In order to prevent COVID-19s, the use of disposable goods is inevitable, but facilities are needed to dispose of them properly.

An Overview of Food Waste Treatment Methods in Korea (우리나라의 음식물쓰레기처리 방법의 개관)

  • Park, Jin-Seo;Cha, Dong-Won;Suh, Seung-Jik
    • Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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    • 2009.06a
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    • pp.427-432
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    • 2009
  • This article deal with an overview of food waste treatment methods in Korea. Garbage trucks are operated manually by garbage workers who pick up the food wastes after food waste is placed in plastic bags by the road sides. However, there are a lot of problems such as, the smell from the split bags and the leachate, the loss of much energy and the complaints regarding the establishment new rubbish tips from the residents in the surrounding area. It also highlights our society's waste of resources. Although the new pneumatic waste transfer system or the dry method seem to have improved some of the environmental conditions, it still bears some problems, for example, the lack of reuse and recycling of resources and the economic problems. We have been analysed the advantages and disadvantages between the existing food waste system and the pneumatic waste transfer system. And the dry method and disposer were discussed. The results will indicate how the disposer can improve more than the existing systems and will provide the evidence to support.

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Monte Carlo Simulation-Based Cost Estimation for Floating Trash Barrier Maintenance (몬테카를로 시뮬레이션 기반 부유 쓰레기 차단막 유지관리 비용 추정 방안)

  • Kim, Seokhwan;Kim, Taegeon;Kim, Hongjo
    • KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.44 no.2
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    • pp.231-235
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    • 2024
  • Marine debris entering through rivers negatively impacts the environment and poses a direct threat to human health. While barriers to prevent the outflow of floating debris are being installed, attention to their maintenance, especially the scheduling of garbage collection, is insufficient. Currently, maintenance relies on a sequential collection method based on the experience and know-how of field workers, with little systematic research to support it. In response, this study proposes a new feedback-based collection method based on YOLOv7, Monte Carlo simulation for trash collection analysis. The proposed method conducts collection based on the amount of trash detected by remote sensors such as CCTV, and the expected costs are statistically and economically compared using Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS). The results showed that the new collection strategy offers a cost advantage of about 63 % over the existing strategy.