Disposição ambientalmente adequada de resíduos sólidos: efeitos sobre indicadores epidemiológicos municipais

Abstract

The general objective of this work was to determine the existence of a relationship between environmentally sound disposal of municipal solid waste and population health. Three hypotheses had be tested: (i) the existence of landfill in a municipality improves the health conditions of their residents; (ii) the quality of landfills also influences the health status of the population; and (iii) municipalities that \"export\" their waste to other municipalities may have different epidemiological indicators from others. For this, there were econometrics estimates; including the adoption of an identification strategy based the health literature. The results do not refuted any of the hypotheses. Such evidence are important in function of the economic activities be intense in exploitation of natural resources (materials and energy) and, at the same time, it produces waste and has the waste in places, not always environmentally friendly. On the one hand, the pattern of mass production, usually adopted by firms, does not reflect without some kind of incentive (economic or regulatory), about how their products and / or by-products can be reused, recycled or reintegrated into a new cycle productive, either on the impact of his return to the environment. On the other hand, the growing population consumption ends up causing more and more solid waste and waste. In this perspective, one must reflect on the way that these solid wastes and tailings should have their destination and final disposal on the environment. If it held precariously, they can cause environmental problems (e.g., through the contamination of soil, surface and groundwater by leachate and air pollution by methane gas and the carbon dioxide) and social, including on population health. Most studies founded deal with the relationship between sanitation, specifically water supply and sanitation, and health, there is a gap on the solid waste management services, in particular the final disposal of these, what motivates this dissertation and points out to the relevance of the results.