eISSN: 2672-7226 © Penerbit UMT Journal of Sustainability Science and Management Volume 16 Number 4, April 2021: 128-143 COMMUNITY RESPIRATORY SYMPTOMS SURVEY AMONG RESIDENTS IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO A LANDFILL IN A TROPICAL RURAL AREA WIDAD FADHULLAH* 1,2 , NUR FAKHIRA AIDA JAFRI 1 , MOHD HAFIIDZ JAAFAR 2 AND HASMAH ABDULLAH 1 1 Environmental and Occupational Health Program, School of Health Sciences, Health Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150 Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia. 2 School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM Penang, Malaysia. *Corresponding author: widad@usm.my Submitted fnal draft: 29 April 2020 Accepted: 25 June 2020 Introduction Sustainable solid waste management requires consideration of social, health, environmental and economic aspects (Al-Khatib et al., 2015). A holistic approach integrating all of these factors should be in place to achieve the sustainable development goals by ensuring access for all to adequate, safe and affordable solid waste collection services, to stop uncontrolled dumping and open burning and to achieve sustainable and environmentally sound management of all wastes by 2030 (Ferronato & Torreta, 2019). Among these factors, pollution and related health effects have the highest concern of the public on the existence of landfll (Al-Khatib et al., 2015). Landfll or open dumping are piled with unattended wastes exposed to physical, chemical and biological processes simultaneously accelerating the waste decomposition together with the generation of leachate and landfll gases (Oketola & Akpotu, 2015). Methane, hydrogen sulphide and ammonia are major air pollutants generated from a landfll which can be exposed to the public via inhalation of airborne emissions, dust or windblown particles from uncontrolled municipal solid waste (MSW) and open dumping (Vrijheid et al., 2002). Emissions of volatile organic compounds mainly, benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes (BTEX) from municipal solid waste dumpsites (Klett et al., 2005) may also affect the respiratory system Abstract: Controlled dumpsite without any liner, leachate treatment and engineered measures can emit landfll gases and hazardous air pollutants to the surrounding environment. This study was conducted to investigate self-reported respiratory symptoms among residents living within 2 km radius of Beris Lalang Landfll, Bachok, Kelantan. A total of 218 respondents aged between 18 and 65 years old were involved in this cross-sectional study from January to March 2019. The questionnaires were adopted from the St George’s Respiratory Questionnaire and opted for the symptom score approach. Majority of the respondents were females (64.7 percent), non-smokers (85.3 percent), Malay (94.0 percent) and received tertiary education (43.6 percent). Respondents were reported to have higher proportions of sneezing, runny or blocked noses (35.8 percent) and coughing attack (36.7 percent) compared to the other respiratory symptoms. Associations were reported between respiratory symptoms with gender and exposure to tobacco smoke. Weak signifcant correlations were found between symptoms score with age of respondents and duration of living in the current home (p<0.05). This fnding implied that proximity to dumpsites did not affect the respiratory symptoms of the communities living within 2 km radius of the dumpsite. This study provides initial evidence about reported symptoms in populations living near to a landfll as a baseline for future epidemiologic assessments towards sustainable health management. Keywords: Landfll, respiratory symptoms, waste dumpsite, environmental health, sustainable solid waste management. http://doi.org/10.46754/jssm.2021.04.011