Environmental pollution and health risks to informal workers: Exposure to heavy metals in human hair at Indonesian landfills

The concentration of heavy metals (HMs) in human hair is a bioindicator of environmental pollution over a long period from worker, including the informal worker at landfills. A landfill is where final-stage refuse is deposited, transported, and disposed of solid waste from urban areas. No study has been conducted on heavy metals in landfills and their health impact on informal workers. This study aims to investigate the accumulation of heavy metals over a long period, the effect of toxic metal exposure on the human body, and the health risks informal workers perceive as bioindicators of pollution in landfills. Human hair samples collected from informal workers and urban were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to measure HMs and human hair certified reference material (CRM) from the national institute for environmental studies, Japan. The sample consisted of individuals who were interviewed and had their hair cut. The total number of respondents in this study was 51 people. The average concentrations of the element heavy metals (µg/g) in informal workers are shown: Pb 4.70, As 0.30, Cd 1.07, Mn 14.58, Co 0.14, Cu 19.31, Fe 73.05, Zn 646.2, and Se 0.65. The results of our study the concentrations of heavy metals were higher than those found for urban residents. In the education level variable, 17.4 % of respondents did not attend school, 50 % attended primary school, and 32.6 % attended junior high school. Gender of respondents, 71.7 % are female, and in the working period, 69.6 % are more than ten years old. An epidemiological study and statistical analysis show the respondents' symptoms & health complaints such as cough, breathlessness, headache, nose irritation, variable mask, duration using a mask, and characteristics of the respondent's significant correlations p-value < 0.05 with a concentration of all metals. These findings show that the HMs have contaminated the environment and entered the human bodies, posing health risks to informal workers in the landfill working area.