Saúde ambiental: riscos ocupacionais enfrentados por catadores de materiais recicláveis cooperativados

Abstract

This research takes place based on the author's concern about a visibly unhealthy occupational environment, faced by collectors of cooperative recyclable materials with direct exposure to contamination vectors, such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, insects and poisonous animals such as rats and bats that can result in diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, zika, coronavirus, leptospirosis, diarrhea, dermatitis, pneumonia, and musculoskeletal diseases such as low back pain, tendonitis, neck pain, among others. Despite being organized in warehouses with the objective of producing sustainable solidarity economy, collaborating for the environmentally appropriate final disposal system of recycling, minimizing the negative impacts produced by the self consumption of materials such as paper, plastic, glass and metal, cooperative collectors need support with regard to their organization in work processes, avoiding the spread of possible diseases related to the handling of solid urban waste. After theoretical discussions applied during the fulfillment of the mandatory disciplines of the Academic Master in Territory, Environment and Society at the Catholic University of Salvador, linked to technical visits in cooperatives of recyclable materials in the city of Salvador - BA, carried out as participation in the research group Gamdes / UCSAL, the following guiding question arose: what is the relationship between environmental health, the management of urban solid waste within work processes and the possible symptoms of occupational disease in workers of a recyclable materials cooperative in the city of Salvador - BA? To this end, it was decided to divide this master's dissertation into two chapters represented by two scientific articles that were concerned with drawing up a theoretical reflection on the scenario where waste pickers are inserted, informing them about the problem of solid urban waste based on official documents. and national and international researchers on the subject, in addition to proposing an assessment map of possible occupational risk factors found through photographic analysis in a cooperative of recyclable materials in Salvador - BA.