A System Dynamics Approach for the Determination of Adverse Health Impacts of Healthcare Waste Incinerators and Landfill Sites on Employees

Abstract

The risks associated with the treatment and disposal of healthcare wastes has gained attention across the world over last decades. The potential for a causal link between the hazardous emissions from waste treatment facilities and certain adverse health outcomes in workers employed in these facilities is difficult to prove or to supply with decent figures.

However it is required to have a mechanism which provides an approach and data to assess this risk in order for the justification of selection and planning of any waste treatment system.

In order to derive usable estimates for the adverse health impacts on workers, a system dynamics approach was adopted by using a software package, Vensim Ple Plus. Using relative risks and latency periods of adverse health outcomes reported by the epidemiological studies and the incidence rates from Turkish Health Statistics for Istanbul, Turkey, the hospital admissions (morbidity) is expected to increase by 40.0% and 9.3% among landfill and incinerator workers respectively over the 30-year employment time; while mortality rate goes up by 0.4% in landfill employees and 0.6% in incinerator employees over the same period of employment.