Air pollution awareness and its health effects among food delivery personnel in Malaysia: article

Food delivery services are increasing in Malaysia which provides many job opportunities to the public. However, the increasing number of vehicles on the road has degraded the air quality, particularly in Malaysia. Food delivery personnel are working for a long period of time on the road has exposed them to air pollution and increase the risk of health effects to the food delivery personnel. Hence, the aim for this to determine the awareness level of the food delivery personnel in Malaysia and assess the self-reported symptoms experienced by the food delivery personnel. Moreover, the objective of this study is also to find the correlation between the selfreported symptoms and the working shift. The method used in this study is by using questionnaire and was distributed through the Facebook group, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Telegram Group. To summarize the result, the majority of respondents age 18-24 years old (52.4%) are aware of air pollution. Most of the respondents obtain information related to the air pollution from the internet (84.7%) and social media (66.1%). Cough (57.6%), sore throat (37.7%), headache (32.5%), and eye irritation (31.9%) are the most common symptoms experienced by the food delivery personnel. This study also found that cough and sore throat has a significant association with the working hour during the food delivery. As conclusion, the food delivery personnel are advised to take measures to reduce air pollution exposure. The management and government of Malaysia also should play important roles to reduce the risk of exposure to the food delivery personnel and to improve the air quality in Malaysia.