Environmental Health Hazards among Public Bus Drivers and Conductors

Abstract

Public bus drivers and conductors are at high risk from working environment and busy traffic and can expose to environmental hazards inside the bus that can cause potential health impacts. This study aimed to identify environmental health hazards among the public bus drivers and conductors in Bangkok Metropolitan areas. The study methods included environmental samplings to quantify the hazards concen-tration inside the bus, risk assessment and interviewed the bus drivers and conductors. The results showed that environmental hazards of concern were temperature, PM2.5 and biological hazards. The average temperature was 28.6 degree Celsius, average PM2.5 were 60 mg/m 3 (which over WHO guideline at 25 mg/m 3 ) and the total bacteria and fungi were also found higher than the standard. The interview results from 428 bus drivers and conductors showed that their age were 27-60 years. They felt uncomfortable with high temperature inside the bus (33.5%), bad odors (19.8%), and loud noise (12.5%). For risk behaviors, 81.0% had practice not eating on time and 50.0% often held their urine; and the common health problems was body pain. In conclusion, this study led to the development of policy recommenda-tions for public transport bus service providers and relevant organizations to protect the health of the population, particularly the public bus drivers and conductors.