Health Impact of Household Waste Burning in Khartoum State, Sudan [Letter]

Dear editor

We were very impressed with the article entitled “Health Impact of Household Waste Burning in Khartoum State, Sudan”. The results of this research have advantages, namely: 1) Based on an online community with a large sample so that the range of generalization is wider; 2) analyze the influence of multiple factors that contribute to waste burning, so as to obtain a more comprehensive insight; 3) using a geographic information system (GIS), so that risk factors can be mapped properly; 4) provide a better understanding of the health impacts of burning household waste; 5) become the basis for recommendations for stakeholders and the community to improve public safety and a good quality of life.¹

However, we have also discovered several limitations that need to be corrected in the future, namely: 1) Not identifying the composition of household waste that is burned, so that we do not gain an in-depth understanding of the health risks caused by burning waste; 2) there is no direct measurement of pollutants, so detailed information about health impact specifications is not obtained; 3) does not consider other factors that influence waste burning behavior such as: cultural, social and economic.

To obtain better results, we recommend that further research be carried out by: 1) Analysis of the composition of burned household waste, in order to obtain a deeper understanding of specific health risks; 2) Direct measurement of air pollutants around waste burning sites, so as to obtain a more accurate understanding of the health impacts that occur;² 3) consider other factors such as: cultural, social, economic and others, so as to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the factors that encourage waste burning behavior.