Abstract
Waste management is one of the most dangerous industries to work for where its workers are continuously exposed to various health and safety risks ranging from musculoskeletal to dermal, to psychological. While the occupational risks that the solid waste workers are exposed to goes unnoticed by the managers and decision makers within the industry as well as the public and governmental agencies, there is not much safety measures out in place due to the lack of recommendations based on scientific studies. The State of Florida is amongst the states that have the highest injury rates among solid waste workers. In this study, we propose to assess the occupational health and safety risks for the solid waste workers in four populous Floridian counties, namely Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and Duval Counties utilizing a Bayesian estimation method. The necessary data for the assessment including the worker's compensation, total population of workers, and injury rates were obtained as permit requests from several governmental sources along with their public websites. Investigation of injuries in addressed counties has shown that musculoskeletal and dermal injuries are the major hazards for solid waste (SW) workers. The results of the conducted Bayesian analysis has shown that musculoskeletal and dermal injuries are the most common ailments affecting solid waste workers in the counties studied. Furthermore, the probability distribution of the injury's means highlight the need to conduct new occupational safety initiatives in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach to reduce the preponderance of these types of injuries in those counties.