If
you don't know a sanitation worker personally, and have never done the
work yourself, you probably don't know much about the guys who take away
the rubbish. New York University anthropologist Robin Nagle spent years
researching the occupation, from following New York Department of
Sanitation workers to training and taking the exam to become one
herself. Then she wrote a book,
Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks with the Sanitation Workers of New York City.
Sanitation
workers, it turns out, have twice the fatality rates of police offers,
and nearly seven times the fatality rates of firefighters. And their
work has similarly life-or-death consequences in the long term, as Nagle
shows by taking a look back at New York City's history. "A study done
in 1851," Nagle writes, "concluded that fully a third of the city's
deaths that year could have been prevented if basic sanitary measures
had been in place."
The Atlantic has a short
interview with Nagle about her experiences learning about the workers we
only notice when their work doesn't get done.
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