IOSR Journal of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 25, Issue 12, Series 2 (December. 2020) 38-46 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/0837-2512023846 www.iosrjournals.org 38 |Page Awareness of scavenging waste pickers on occupational hazards in selected dumpsites in Nairobi metropolis, Kenya Authors: 1 Mwaura Hashim, 1 Paul Njogu, 2 Robert Kinyua, Richard Korir 3 1 Institute of Energy and Environmental Technology, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, P.O. Box 62000- 00200 Nairobi, Kenya 2 Academic Division, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, P.O. Box 62000- 00200 Nairobi, Kenya 3 Centre for Microbiology Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, P.O. Box 54840- 00200 Nairobi, Kenya Abstract Background: Environmental pollution from uncontrolled solid waste disposal is of major concern and generates chemicals or pollutants that reach their surroundings. The increasing amount of municipal solid waste emanating from residential, commercial and industrial areas, together with changing nature of waste over time, have led to the degradation of the quality of the environment. This study was carried out in order to provide baseline information on hazards at the dumpsites and the level of awareness of these hazards among the waste pickers. Materials and Methods: These cross sectional study was carried out in in three dumpsites situated in Kiambu, Kajiado and Nairobi Counties. The study sampled 183 waste pickers in the three dumpsites. Data was collected using questionnaires and observation checklist. Data was cleaned coded and entered into Excel spread sheet and transferred to Statistical Package for Social Scientists. Analysis involved descriptive statistics and associations of variables using Chi Square test at 95% confidence interval. Results: Hazard awareness level among the participants was very low since some respondents (24/171) never used gloves while others (47/171) were not sure about using gloves yet they were handling hazardous recyclables. All participants (96/96) from Thika and Kawangware (8/8) dumpsite never wash and change into clean clothing not worn during working hours. About, 73% of participants from Ngong strongly agrees that they suffer back pains as a results of handling heavy weight. There was significant association between level of awareness to hazards and occupational safety and health in the selected dumpsites since the computed chi- square test value (χ 2 =210.995) was greater than its corresponding critical value (χ 2 =79.082). The study concludes that most participant’s awareness level on hazards exposure was low and also they were hindered by several factors from handling of wastes safely. The study recommends that group officials and NGOs should assist the waste pickers with training on their occupational safety and health, provide proper PPE and other basic needs in order to minimize diseases, injuries and near miss. Key Word: Awareness, waste pickers, occupational, PPE, hazards, dumpsites, recyclables --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 25-11-2020 Date of Acceptance: 09-12-2020 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. INTRODUCTION Garbage is the solid waste that results from a broad range of human activities. Solid waste management has always been a challenge to modern civilizations. In Kenya, solid waste comes from the garbage discarded by residential households and business premises. The county governments are responsible for the collection, transportation, and disposal of such waste to landfills, and where capacity is insufficient, they register private organizations to supplement these efforts. Human waste pickers recover reusable material from the waste in these landfills for recycling in industries. Dumpsites are notorious for industrial, household, agricultural, and even medical waste disposed of haphazardly, posing significant environmental, safety and health risks to both waste pickers and dumpsite neighbors. The garbage contains plastics, electronics, metals, and discarded food, among other things. Also, much of the waste is not contained in easy to lift load sizes. Therefore, solid waste pickers lift heavier loads than recommended 1 . The loads usually have to be manually lifted up to positions higher than shoulders to the waiting trucks. Several studies have been conducted on awareness of waste pickers on hazard exposed to them. Senzeni et al., 2 in one of the study, noted that, additional health risk behaviour observed at Onderstepoort dumpsite was limited use of safety boots and gloves. Those that were used by a few scavengers were picked from the dumpsite. However, in general, the scavengers did not prioritize protective clothing. These was due to the low hazard awareness level among the participants. Thurarattanasunthonet al., 3 ,