CMAJ News

Freegans risk the hazards of dumpster diving

n Monday nights, Quincy Brandt regularly gets together O with a few friends in Win- nipeg, Manitoba, to dine on food they salvaged from the trash. Brandt, a 28-year-old university student, is part of a growing anticon- sumer movement to rescue discarded food by dumpster diving, usually from bins behind . Brandt says he visits his “trap line” about once week, taking away prized items such as extra-creamy ice cream, king crab legs, fancy cheeses, dark chocolate, frozen hors d’oeuvres and pizza, and plenty of vegetables, fruit and fruit juices. “Some dumpster divers use sticks for digging and lifting items out of the trash, but being young and agile, I usu- ally jump in to access the very bottom,” says Brandt, a seasoned trash forager with five years’ experience. Sometimes he wears protective hik- ing boots and gloves — other times he doesn’t. Climbing inside a dumpster, sifting through the garbage and eating food without knowing where it’s been is risky behaviour that worries some pub- lic health officials and others in the food-safety field. “There has to be a reason why people throw things out,” cautions Jim Chan, manager of food safety at Toronto Public Health in Ontario. “It’s a very risky thing because we don’t know what’s in the garbage,” adds public health consultant Carla Eskow, a professor in the Environmental Health Department at Concordia University College in Edmonton, Alberta. Dumpster diving poses many poten-

tial health risks, according to Eskow. 2013 Thinkstock © These include possible cuts from nails, The health risks are greater for those who eat discarded food out of necessity, such as knives, glass and other sharp objects that homeless people, than for “freegans,” who are generally younger and healthier. can end up in the garbage. There is also a possibility of becoming ill from bacteria, fecal matter, which can penetrate and Despite these risks, dumpster diving especially in the summer; the dumpsters infect open skin, Eskow says. has become increasingly common in themselves breed bacteria and some are Chan adds that washing food does the last five years or so, with the growth sprayed with pesticides. Food can also not guarantee these contaminants or of “” — food scavenging come into contact with chemicals and chemicals will be eliminated. with aficionados, such as Brandt, who

© 2013 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors CMAJ, April 16, 2013, 185(7) E281 News dumpster dive as a lifestyle choice to ment, or admit they became ill or received any health complaints or con- reduce , rather than out of necessity. injured from dumpster diving. cerns about dumpster diving, says Freegans (a blend of “free” and “It’s a hugely understudied phenom- spokesman Eric Leclair. “It is definitely “vegan,” although not all freegans are enon,” says Kerr, director of the Urban not at the front of the line” of public vegans) have brought a higher profile Health Research Initiative at the British health concerns, he says. to an activity that has traditionally Columbia Centre for Excellence in The perils of dumpster diving do not been the domain of low- or no-income HIV/AIDS. appear to be on the radar screen of garbage foragers, who dumpster dive Brandt, for his part, says he does not national health organizations either. for survival. believe he has ever been sick from food Spokespersons for the Canadian Health Eskow believes the health risks are he has salvaged from dumpsters — Care Association, the Canadian Public greater for dumpster divers who eat dis- although he stresses that he is cautious Health Association or the Canadian carded food out of necessity — such as about his selections. Association of Emergency Physicians homeless people — than they are for Despite warnings from public health said they had no information or public freegans, who often forage in groups, officials, Chan and Eskow say there statements about the risks. wear protective gear, have homes where does not appear to be conclusive evi- However, the lack of reporting — they can wash their finds, and are gener- dence that the risks associated with and a shortage of studies — doesn’t ally younger, healthier, and therefore dumpster diving have actually trans- mean that people don’t become ill or more immune to illness than those who lated into important health problems. injured from the trash, cautions Chan. live on the streets. “I have been a health inspector for “I don’t think anybody would dis- Thomas Kerr, a British Columbia 30 years, and I don’t believe anything close that information,” he says. “People researcher who has worked with drug has come across my desk or from a eating food from a dumpster, that’s not addicts in ’s Downtown East- database or from wherever that there something they’re going to volunteer.” side, suspects that health problems — has been somebody who ate food from “My occasional sick days are like ranging from sprained ankles to stom- a dumpster and became ill,” says Chan. those of others,” says Brandt, who ach bugs and “horrible infections that All emergency departments, doctors’ asserts that “the biggest risk of dump- start with a cut on the hand” — are not offices, walk-in clinics and other health ster diving, in my view, is climbing up uncommon among homeless people or facilities in Toronto are expected to and down the bin.” — Janice Tibbetts, low-income earners who comb the report cases of food-borne illness and Ottawa, Ont. trash for food. He says, however, that their origins to public health. they are unlikely to seek medical treat- Neither has Ottawa Public Health CMAJ 2013. DOI:10.1503/cmaj.109-4422

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