Social vulnerabilities of female waste pickers in Brasília, Brazil

Abstract

Worldwide, waste pickers are exposed to adverse health effects resulting from hazards at work. This study aimed to identify possible gender disparities among waste pickers. A quantitative cross-sectional epidemiological study, using semi-structured data was conducted in Estrutural’s dumpsite, Brasília, Brazil. It included 1,025 waste pickers, with 67% being female. Most of them lived without partners (73.7%), have 3 to 4 children (47.8%), and have a lower monthly income (62.6%<USD 125) when compared to men (p < 0,001). Women also suffered from worse health outcomes than men: hypertension- 26.3%; 16.2% (p < 0.001), bronchitis- 16.4%; 9.7% (p 0,003), diarrhea- 28.3; 17.0 and worms- 16.0; 5.5% (p < 0,001), respectively. This study highlighted the existence of gender differences among waste pickers, which suggests a greater vulnerability of the female population who need policies, programs and awareness of society to ensure safe working and living conditions both for them and their children.

Keywords:

• Equity
• female
• gender
• vulnerability
• waste

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their thanks to certain Brazilian institutions, without whose support it would not have been possible to carry out this study: the University of Brasília, where the Brazilian lecturers and researchers work; the partnership with School of Health Sciences (ESCS); the Government of the Federal District (GDF) and State Secretariat of Health of the Federal District, Brasilia (SESDF); the Primary Healthcare Center where the study was carried out, its managers and the professionals who participated; The collaborator of the ‘‘Stop, Think and Discard” project; The Federal District’s Urban Cleaning Service, Solid Waste Recycling Cooperatives, the waste pickers who participated in the study, and the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPQ), which supported one axis of the study by providing a post-doctoral internship grant.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no external funding.