updated: 2005-10-12
It is about cleaners health. I think a good photo essay should have a main theme or "angle". These women take care of the hygiene of the our building; but who take care their health. I talked to one cleaner and she said nobody told her or teach why and how to wear a mask. The situation is a bit the same for the street cleaners.
I view a photo essay in a MSNBC, called the Aging in America. I love it - I think a good photo essay should tell people what the society is really about.
The story: Nobody, in a multi-storey building, wants their garbage doors being opened. But someone opens the door twice a day and collects those we discarded. They are the Cleaners. They live with us. A cleaner told me that she began to clean my building interiors four years ago. She said she decided to wear the mask by herself; no one, including her employer and staffs of the management office of the building, told her to wear a mask. She works more than 50 hours a week; she said she was healthy. Street cleaners keep streets and public areas free of litter and rubbish. A street cleaner of a subcontractor of the Food and Environment Hygiene Department told me that she refused to wear a mask becasue it made her uncomfortable, though her boss and officials from the Labour Department had teached her why and how to wear a mask.
There is no comprehensive survey on the health conditions of the street cleaners and cleaners of residential buildings in Hong Kong. According to a recent study in Bangkok by the Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, behavior risk factors are highly prevalent in the street cleaners since most of them come from the lower socio-economic class. The risk factors include alcohol drinking and smoking habits. Futher investigation are being undertaken to study the after-effects of air pollutin among this group of workers. Someone should take care those who care for us.