Cleaning Human Waste

"This 96-page report documents the coercive nature of manual scavenging. Across India, castes that work as "manual scavengers" collect human excrement on a daily basis, and carry it away in cane baskets for disposal. Women from this caste usually clean dry toilets in homes, while men do the more physically demanding cleaning of sewers and septic tanks. The report describes the barriers people face in leaving manual scavenging, including threats of violence and eviction from local residents but also threats, harassment, and unlawful withholding of wages by local officials."--Publisher's website.

Overview of current and emerging methods used in cleaning up pollution.

The third edition of A Guide to Hygiene and Sanitation in Aviation addresses water, food, waste disposal, cleaning and disinfection, vector control and cargo safety, with the ultimate goal of assisting all types of airport and aircraft operators and all other responsible bodies in achieving high standards of hygiene and sanitation, to protect travellers and crews engaged in air transport. Each topic is addressed individually, with guidelines that provide procedures and quality specifications that are to be achieved. The guidelines apply to domestic and international air travel for all developed and developing countries.

First published in 1997, this volume examines the urban environments of Accra (Ghana), Harare (Zimbabwe) and Gaborone (Botswana). Each was effectively the capital city of a former British colony, and hence inherited a concern for public health. Each has made a serious and largely successful effort to provide the public goods necessary for the well-being of their urban population. Each is well above the average for all of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in these respects. However, the GDP per capita varies significantly between these three countries. Differences in standard of living are similarly evident. The authors focus intensively on public policies that determine who gets what, how they get it, and what price they pay.

Practical, step-by-step strategies for helping your own family, first responders and vulnerable community members during any emergency situation. Eventually, everyone experiences a catastrophic emergency. Whether it’s a hurricane that sweeps across their entire state, an earthquake or flood that decimates their home city or a house fire that puts their family in danger. Knowing what to do before, during and immediately after these emergency situations can mean the difference between life and death. All across the country people of all walks of life are signing up for Community Emergency Response Team training classes where they learn how to help those in dire need and assist overwhelmed first responders in saving lives and preventing further disaster. This book teaches you what those CERT team members learn—from stabilizing a car crash victim for ambulance transport and rescuing trapped citizens from a fallen building to putting out a house fire before the fire trucks even arrive. Learn about: • Creating event-specific disaster kits for yourself and your family • Learning about basic fire safety and fire fighting • Establishing triage centers in the event that first responders can’t reach you • Stabilizing disaster victims through need-to-know first aid • Creating your own neighborhood emergency response team to keep your neighborhood safe and save lives should the worst occur

To cut costs and maximize profits, hospitals in the United States and many other countries are outsourcing such tasks as cleaning and food preparation to private contractors. In Cleaning Up, the first book to examine this transformation in the healthcare industry, Dan Zuberi looks at the consequences of outsourcing from two perspectives: its impact on patient safety and its role in increasing socioeconomic inequality. Drawing on years of field research in Vancouver, Canada as well as data from hospitals in the U.S. and Europe, he argues that outsourcing has been disastrous for the cleanliness of hospitals—leading to an increased risk of hospital-acquired infections, a leading cause of severe illness and death—as well as for the effective delivery of other hospital services and the workers themselves. Zuberi’s interviews with the low-wage workers who keep hospitals running uncover claims of exposure to near-constant risk of injury and illness. Many report serious concerns about the quality of the work due to understaffing, high turnover, poor training and experience, inadequate cleaning supplies, and on-the-job injuries. Zuberi also presents policy recommendations for improving patient safety by reducing the risk of hospital-acquired infection and ameliorating the work conditions and quality of life of hospital support workers. He makes the case that hospital outsourcing exemplifies the trend towards “low-road” service-sector jobs that threatens to undermine society’s social health, as well as the physical health and well-being of patients in health care settings globally.