Public Health

The relationship between public health and effective waste management goes back centuries and remains crucial in both industrialized and agricultural societies. In the industrialized world, advances in waste management were crucial to reduce epidemic diseases in urban centers. While Europe and the United States developed extensive systems to manage sewage, drinking water, and solid waste by the end of the 19th century, serious public health threats to much of the world's population exist in the 21st century because of inadequate waste management. Poor waste management at times triggers epidemics of some vector-borne or foodborne infections. Accumulated garbage leads to problems such [Page 710]as infections due to pathogens, vector-borne diseases, and groundwater pollution. Health hazards are mainly due to the presence of human excreta, presence of wastes from hospitals and clinics, and unauthorized disposal of hazardous wastes from small-scale industries or municipal solid waste. Uncovered dumps of garbage attract many flies, mosquitoes, and pathogens, which are nuisances and spread diseases.

Moreover, rodents may be attracted from surrounding farms or they may be delivered to the site in a load of wastes. They destroy property, bite people, and transmit a variety of infections either by themselves, such as leptospirosis, or through vectors, such as plague. It is also possible that the leachate from dumping grounds may lead to adverse health consequences because of ground contamination. During long dry periods, the surface of a landfill can become very dusty, and airborne dust makes working conditions unpleasant. Infectious and allergic disorders, especially of the respiratory tract, are common under these conditions.

A government worker sprays smoke insecticide in an effort to eradicate mosquitoes in a rural village in Thailand. Uncovered dumps and waterlogging from heavy rains attract mosquitoes, which transmit diseases such as dengue fever and malaria.