Assessment of occupational hazards exposures of artisanal and small-scale mining in Ghana

The hazardous nature of artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) has been reported; however, there is limited understanding of the hazards that remain a priority and deserve greater focus. This research was therefore formulated to address this gap by uncovering the perspective of the miners regarding exposure to workplace health and safety hazards. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 336 miners across four ASM sites in Ghana, and the data were analysed through descriptive and inferential statistics. Through factor analysis, it was observed that the 18 specific hazards across ASM sites can be grouped into seven major hazards with different levels of exposure. Repeated one-way ANOVA revealed that the hazards consisted of those with high exposure (biological, ergonomic and chemical hazards), medium exposure (physical and mechanical hazards) and low exposure (fire and electrical hazards). Thus, exposure to the hazards was ranked from highest to lowest, in the order of biological hazards, ergonomic hazards, chemical hazards, physical hazards, mechanical hazards, fire hazards and electrical hazards. This indicates that biological and ergonomic hazards remain a priority and deserve greater focus. It was also observed that over 60% of the miners indicated that the risk of workplace exposure is undesirable/unacceptable; however, they were unwilling to leave the ASM sector, suggesting a high-risk appetite and a fatalistic mindset. Further research is warranted in this area to uncover the extent to which such fatalistic beliefs are embedded in the sector and what can be done to improve the safety awareness of artisanal small-scale miners.