Study of noncommunicable diseases among the street sweepers of Muster Station, Ahmedabad municipal corporation

Introduction: Today we all are talking for “Swatch Bharat”, but street workers are the real fighters who are working for this. Street working environment exposes to lot of organic and inorganic dust and chronic inhalation of dust during street sweeping which may increases respiratory health symptoms among them. This study was planned to study the effect of work on health of street workers primarily respiration function. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out among muster station of Ahmedabad Municipal corporation area during a period of April 2013 to November 2014. For the study total 762 Safai Kamdar (street sweepers) and 41 administrative staff were included after taking consent. The participants were examined for hypertension, Peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR), lab investigations like hemoglobin and blood glucose. Results: Mean age of Street Sweeper was 39.2 + 10.02 years and admin staff was 38.2 + 6.92 years. Street Sweeper were found to be significantly underweight as compared to admin staff. Hypertension in administrative group (51.1%) was higher but not significant than Street Sweeper (45.03%). only 12.3 % of Safai Kamdar were using any kind of personal protective equipment (PPE). 52.1% of Street Sweeper had low PEFR was as compared to 20% of Administrative group. Conclusion: Street sweeping had a significant impact on health of street sweepers. They should be made aware about use of PPE.