Dose Response and Exposure Assessment of Household Hazardous Waste

This study was conducted to assess the risk of health hazards to employees working in local authorities in Malaysia especially workforce involved in waste management. Therefore, the four steps process of Health Risk Assessment has been identified, which include hazard identification, exposure assessment, dose response assessment and risk characterization. It was estimated approximately 22,388 tons of wastes generated every year in Malaysia and around 2.2 % out of that amount were consisting of hazardous household waste (HHW) with mean average generation for each person per day was around 0.02 kg. The waste generation is expected to increase 2 to 3 % per year and estimated to reach approximately 31 million of tones per day in the year 2020. In this study, the household hazardous wastes (HHW) were analyzed for their permissible dose level and the existing hazard level, hazard index and cancer index. Cancer Index for dermal exposure is found to be 5.8 × 10-7 mg/m3, for Inhalation dust 1.4× ×10-1 mg/m3, which falls under Low Risk and for Inhalation aerosol is 5 × ×10-2 mg/m3, under Medium Risk. Extra care must be taken for the management of HHW as if it is improperly managed, it will fall into High Risk.