From dumpsites to engineered landfills: A systematic review of risks to occupational and public health

Abstract

Disposal on land has persisted as the most predominant form of waste disposal for millennia and despite advances in modern engineered landfills, large quantities (405 Mt y-1) of collected municipal solid waste (MSW) are still deposited and concentrated in open, uncontrolled dumpsites throughout low- and middle-income countries (LIMICs) worldwide – a key form of waste mismanagement. These pose major threats to the health and safety of surrounding populations and mainly waste pickers who across the Global South target dumpsites to salvage and recycle under minimal protection measures. Here, we conducted an adapted PRISMA systematic review, distilling over 3,000 papers into 40 core sources from 22 countries, to critically assess the evidence on the associated risks. We identified prevalent hazard-pathway-receptor combinations and subsequently scored, compared and ranked the relative risk of exposure to harm experienced by various actors in land disposal sites. Our assessment indicates high risk levels experienced through interaction with medical waste, emissions from waste combustion, and critically through the fatal risk of waste slope failure, claiming the lives of at least (on average) of 34 people per year since 1992. Despite the strong anecdotal signals on the generic nature of the health and safety challenges at hand, many of the sources lack critical information with which to determine and link causality of health effects with the existence, or even exposure to emissions or other hazards. Yet, our critical analysis clearly demonstrates an unacceptable potential for damage to human health and safety; alerting us on the need to close, and immediately manage risks at dumpsites, preventing harm to some of the worlds’ poorest inhabitants. Our aspiration is that quantification and mitigation of risks from dumpsites attracts substantial and scientifically robust efforts.