Cebu City’s garbage collectors, street cleaners will now be equipped with health safety gears

The personal protective equipment will include masks, coveralls, boots and gloves

Volunteers and workers of the Cebu City Environment Office cover put on masks amid the foul smell that emanated from Lahug River during the massive river cleanup on Saturday, March 9, 2019. |CDND File Photo/Delta Dyrecka Letigio

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Street cleaners and waste collectors will now be protected from the hazards of collecting garbage and cleaning after the trash of Cebu City’s residents.

Cebu City Councilor Alvin Dizon told CDN Digital on Sunday, October 27, 2019, that his resolution approved by the City Council early this week aims to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) for the street cleaners and waste collectors in the city to ensure that they are not exposed to pathogens and other harmful chemicals.

Dizon presented his resolution to the City Council on Tuesday, October 22, urging the city government’s Department of Public Works (DPS) to provide all waste collector and street cleaners with the proper PPE before being deployed for duty.

The City Council passed Dizon’s resolution and has ordered the DPS to comply with providing PPEs for waste collectors.

These PPEs include dust masks, safety coveralls, safety footwear, eye protection and safety gloves.

“Solid waste management operation are hazardous in nature involving high risks in terms of the potential for our waste collectors or sustaining injury and contacting diseases caused by pathogens from garbage and the different types of wastes the collectors are exposed to,” said Dizon.

In previous statement, Engineer Joel Biton, the head of the DPS, said they are providing gloves and boots to all waste collectors, street cleaners, and volunteers of river clean-ups.

The DPS received a backlash from netizens last August when pictures of unprotected food-for-work volunteers wading in the Guadalupe River to collect garbage went viral online.

Biton said they have stopped volunteers from wading into dirty rivers and that they have been provided with preventive medicine for any possible sickness that may arise out of getting in contact with garbage.

Since the backlash, Biton said DPS has provided its workers and volunteers with the proper PPEs.

He assured the public that all DPS workers handling hazardous tasks are trained for the job and the city has been ensuring their health safety. /elb