Bioaerosol emissions from solid waste processing facilities at urban environment and their impact on human health

Abstract

Waste management is one of the challenging issues in developing countries because of indiscriminate urbanization, huge population growth coupled with insufficient technology to manage it. The processing of waste and producing manure are good techniques for solid waste management. This study shows that during waste processing such as loading and unloading, sorting, mixing and leachate treatment, several types of bioaerosols, both bacterial and fungal, are emitted to the atmosphere. Here, both fungal and bacterial bioaerosol concentration near a waste processing facility is reported with metagenomic analysis and health assessment. Average bacterial bioaerosol concentration was noted to be 2979 ± 544 CFU/m3, whereas the fungal bioaerosol concentration was 2288 ± 1128 CFU/m3 at the waste processing site. Size distribution shows that the concentration of bacterial bioaerosol was mostly in the finer range (0.65–1.1 μm) while the fungal concentration was highest in the coarse size (between 3.3 and 7.0 μm). The metagenomic analysis of the bacterial bioaerosol sample revealed dominance of Alcaligenaceae (22 %), Stenotrophomonas (19 %), Bacillus (14 %) whereas, Fusarium (40 %), Epicoccum (23 %), Hypocreales (15 %), Coprinopsis (8 %), Cladosporium (4 %), Sarocladium (4 %), Tourlaspora (2 %), Alternaria (2 %) and Cryptococcus (2 %) were dominant fungal species. The top two dominant genera of bacterial strain expressed resistance towards azithromycin and cefixime. In the cross-sectional health survey near the waste processing site, participants including both workers on the site and people nearby, reported symptoms of respiratory, skin and eye irritation and bad smell. This study will help to improve the waste treatment process safety protocols and the health of the population around. © 2025 Elsevier B.V.