![]() The majority of these workers are employed by private companies. But publicly employed garbage collectors accounted for only about 20% of the country’s waste collectors in 2007, according to Statistics Canada. ![]() CUPE is the biggest union representing sanitation workers who are employed by municipalities. In a 2010 report, CUPE described garbage collection as “one of the most hazardous jobs,” with injuries of some sort afflicting 35% of garbage collectors each year. He says he knows of no Canadian statistics on the health problems associated with garbage collection. “If you’re on the job for five years … I would say it’s a pretty safe statement that you’re going to get some kind of injury,” says Winters. ![]() While garbage collection may not seem like a hazardous job, Canadian industry officials say that it can pose health and safety risks that keep hundreds of the country’s almost 35 000 waste collectors off the job at any given time.ĭeaths in the occupation are rare, but ergonomic injuries, such as back strain, are commonplace and cuts from sharp objects and exposure to bacteria and toxins are always a threat, says Troy Winters, a senior health and safety officer at the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). Two months later in Ottawa, Ontario, sanitation worker Rocco D’Angelo died after being accidentally struck by a sport utility vehicle while on his pickup route in the city’s south end. ![]() John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, worker off the job for two weeks. The deep cut pierced a vein, required six stitches and kept the St. Garbage collector Jamie Thompson was picking up trash one day last summer when blood started flowing from his forearm, which had been punctured by a broken wine glass in a curbside garbage bag. ![]()
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