ECOLOGICAL SECURITY

When an undervalued sector is exposed to high risk factors.

When we speak of ecological safety we do not only mean environmental pollution, construction, circulation of vehicles and the like; but let's pay attention to one of the main problems: the hygiene sector in the field of ecology.

I refer in particular to all those employees who work every day cleaning the city of municipal waste, to those workers who, in full COVID emergency, continued to work every day exposing themselves to the risk of contagion and putting themselves at the service of the community.

I'm talking about the ecological operators, who have continued to clean our streets, collect our waste, often house by house, doing their best even when total protection was not possible and doing their best, even putting their own at risk health.

COVID has brought many problems to the category of ecological operators, affecting an already very delicate situation.

Collecting waste without making distinctions between healthy citizens and citizens infected by the virus and, often doing it without masks, gloves and without any sanitizing of vehicles and environments, was extremely heavy and risky.

Despite the safety protocols established by the government, the rules have not always been respected, once again showing safety problems, which are well known in the environmental hygiene sector.

From the results produced by the careful study of experts in the sector, it is noted that the extreme vulnerability of the safety of life itself, the safety of our fellow citizens, family members, friends and acquaintances, who face the risk of contamination by diseases or viruses on a daily basis. danger themselves, their families and the community around them.

What should be proposed and put into operation immediately in this sector is a pilot action plan that should be undertaken by local and central government institutions and by companies that perform city cleaning services.

In this sector there is a lot of work to be done to reduce as much as possible a risk that threatens the daily life of every citizen in an extremely worrying way.

The emergency plan of the measures adopted foresees its development in several points:

1- Education and information of citizens on the dangers represented by non-compliance with the structural guidelines for urban waste.

2- Education and information of citizens on how to collect and dispose of urban waste, so as not to pollute the environment and not endanger the safety of community life.

3- Education and information of citizens on the implementation of the rules and indications of the local institutions that deal with the cleaning and hygiene of the city.

4- Education and information of the employees of cleaning companies on the prevention of the risk that occurs during the performance of their work.

Although there are innumerable problems in this field that need to be touched upon and discussed, I believe that these are the main points that need urgent and concrete measures, starting from education and information through seminars for citizens and local management institutions.

By Dr. Tomori Mareglen

Criminologist

Section Leader IPO Italy