By Professor Anne Harriss, SOM Past President
In November 2025 I attended a launch event of the above project at Gweru Provincial Hospital, Midlands Province, hosted by Prof Dingani Moyo, a Zimbabwean based occupational physician. This project is funded by NEBOSH’s social purpose fund.
The provision of occupational health services within healthcare settings in Zimbabwe is very limited. Shabani et al. (2023 and 2024) highlighted that healthcare workers in Zimbabwe are exposed to a variety of work-related hazards with the potential to negatively impact on their physical and mental health and wellbeing. Occupational stress in particular is a significant issue for this workforce. SOM highlighted the impact of workplace issues on the mental health of nurses and midwives in the UK in this report.
The launch was attended by the hospital Matron, Medical Superintendent and the Provincial Medical Director. A training strategy is being developed to enable health professionals to deliver pre-prepared teaching packages, train the trainer courses enabling others to deliver core materials and finding mental health champions. The content, delivery and impact of this project will be evaluated throughout. On successful completion, the aim is to create a springboard for similar approaches for other district, provincial and central hospitals in Zimbabwe.
A further visit by Prof Neil Greenberg, SOM President is planned for 2026 to enhance this initiative.
Although the primary reason for this visit was the launch of this project, I was also able to visit, observe and increase understanding of artisanal mining in Zimbabwe. Artisanal and small-scale mining is poverty-driven, using archaic processes exposing miners to a range of occupational hazards. There are many inherent to workplace hazards such as:
- Physical - noise; vibration; sun exposure and a challenging thermal environment.
- Biological - Moyo et al. (2023) highlight that artisanal/small-scale miners in Zimbabwe have a high prevalence of TB and HIV infection. Other organisms include venomous snakes and arachnida - scorpions and spiders.
- Mechanical - medium and smaller sized machinery and hand tools.
- Ergonomic - challenging working postures whilst working in confined spaces. The miners use a range of tools coupled with the moving and handling of heavy/unwieldy loads.
- Psycho-social - the impact of poverty, the stress of dangerous work, issues for female workers and likely isolation of miners from their families with the likelihood of sexually transmitted and other diseases being transmitted to their home communities.
- Chemical - numerous highly hazardous materials including, but not restricted to, fine respirable dusts containing silica, mercury, and cyanide.
We were told that extreme care is taken in how cyanide is stored due to the risk of this being misappropriated. The use of open tanks of cocktails of chemicals used in the extraction of gold was also of interest due to associated health and safety and possible environmental impact issues.
I would have liked to further explore the physical and psycho-social health effects of artisanal mining on female workers, particularly those that are pregnant/or are nursing mothers with the obvious dangers of mercury exposure on their babies.
References
Shabani, T., Jerie, S. & Shabani, T. (2023). Occupational stress among workers in the health service in Zimbabwe: causes, consequences, and interventions. Saf. Extreme Environ. 5, 305–316 (2023).
Shabani, T., Steven, J. & Shabani, T. (2024). Significant occupational hazards faced by healthcare workers in Zimbabwe. Life Cycle Reliab Saf Eng 13, 61–73.
WHO/ILO (undated) Caring for those who care guide for the development and implementation of occupational health and safety programmes for health workers. Executive summary Geneva: WHO/ILO
Moyo, D. et al. (2023) Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners regarding Tuberculosis, Human Immunodeficiency Virus, and Silicosis in Zimbabwe. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Nov 27;20(23):7116. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20237116
