Due to the absence of standards and norms for handling municipal wastes, municipal workers suffer occupational health hazards of waste handling.

At the dumpsites in the city of Mumbai, for example, 95 workers were examined and it was found that about 80% of them had eye problems, 73% respiratory ailments, 51% gastrointestinal ailments and 27% skin lesions.

Also, municipal workers and rag pickers who operate informally for long hours rummaging through waste also suffer from similar occupational health diseases ranging from respiratory illnesses (from ingesting particulates and bio-aerosols), infections (direct contact with contaminated material), puncture wounds (leading to tetanus, hepatitis and HIV infection) to headaches and nausea, etc.

Studies among the 180 rag pickers at open dumps of Kolkata city reveal that average quarterly incidence of diarrhoea was 85%, fever 72% and cough and cold 63%.