Assessment of Workers’ Perception of Occupational Hazards at Nampundwe Mine in Zambia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background The extent to which Mineworkers perceive hazards at the workplace is important to avoid Mine accidents and thus prevent damage to health, life, and property. However, Mine accidents have increased despite the large investments in health and safety training programs. Methods The study used a mixed-method approach to collect data. The study comprised 205 Workers in total, consisting of 8 Managers, 18 Supervisors, 24 Machine Operators, 80 General Miners, and 75 Contractors. These respondents were chosen by using a purposive simplifying procedure. The study used semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and document reviews in the collection of data. Results Study findings revealed that there was a significantly high impact of occupational health hazards on monthly income towards Contractors (p < 0.001, OR = 0.99, CI = 0.997-0.998). The study findings further reported that Workers at Nampundwe Mine have good to fair knowledge of occupational hazards. Supervisors appeared to have the highest level of awareness among the respondents, fair (38.97%), and good (54.61%). The Contractors had the lowest level of awareness and these were ranked as either fair (37, 05%) or good (18.65%). It has also revealed that the major causes of accidents are contravening of Safety Rules (38.11%) Falling from Heights (37.52%), Trackless Vehicles (8%), Rock Falling (5.4%), Morning Shifts (4.01%) and Electricity Shocks (6.91%) Further, the results reported that the major causes of accidents are falling from heights recorded a (37.52%) followed by trackless vehicles at (25.00%), rock falling standing at (16.06%), electricity shock (12.58%), explosion (7.10%), and least flooding at (1.74 %). Additionally, respondents are trained on how to respond to an emergency. And are very much aware of the health and safety measures and all standard operation procedures but rarely follow them when executing tasks. Conclusions Our result found Workers have good to fair knowledge of occupational hazards. Supervisors appeared to have the highest level of awareness among the respondents.