Professional cleaning is a basic service
occupation that is carried out
worldwide in many different environments,
both indoors and outdoors.
Cleaning workers form an important
proportion of the total working population;
for instance 3% in the USA, 4% in
Finland,1 and 10% of the female working
population in Spain.2 Cleaners often
have low occupational skills and belong
to the less advantaged educational and
socioeconomic groups.3 4 There are a
number of important differences in the
organisation of cleaning jobs between
geographical areas and their prevailing
cultures, which are related to differences
in work conditions and hence
occupational hazards. In many countries
cleaning work is predominantly done by
women, with a relatively high proportion
of older women.4 Immigrants constitute
another major group doing
cleaning work in many industrialised
areas. Cleaners may be employed by
private cleaning companies and sent out
to clean buildings of various contractors,
which may result in dispersed workplaces.
An important number of cleaners
are employed in the informal
sector, particularly those in cleaning
private homes,2 but also in cleaning
bars, schools, and other places. This is
often characterised by precarious
employment, often part-time. The
related low social and legal protection
results in payment on an hourly basis
without proper contracts or insurance.
Taking into account all these particular
characteristics, cleaners are likely to
escape from control such as regulations,
health surveillance, and risk prevention.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a
concise overview of the most common
occupational hazards in cleaning work,
and to discuss possibilities to improve
control and prevention.