Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has urged campaigners against illegal mining to rely only on peer-reviewed research, warning that unverified data on galamsey’s effects could create fear and panic among the public.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Friday, October 3, he welcomed the increased advocacy against galamsey but warned that some data on the effects lack proper scientific backing.
“Increasing the advocacy is good, but a part of the advocacy doesn’t sound scientific to me,” he said.
He questioned recent research that attributes spontaneous abortions to galamsey, urging researchers to publish full details and subject their work to peer review.
Read also: Research links 500 spontaneous abortions to galamsey-related placental contamination – Prof Sampene
Commenting on the research on the spontaneous abortions caused by galamsey, he said, “That’s not scientific, with all due respect. Correlation is not necessarily causation.”
He explained what he meant by peer review, describing it as a standard quality check. “Peer reviewing is you submitting your research to a body, and all the experts will come through and analyse it from all angles. So far, I haven’t seen peer review.”
Mr Kpebu suggested a respected national body should handle the review process. “I feel like some of the data being sent is not being scientific enough. I am sure the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences would be able to take this and take it through a peer review mechanism, then we would be sure,” he said.
He said he was not denying galamsey’s harmful effects, but warned against spreading unverified findings.
“I am not downplaying the reported review of galamsey; I am just asking for a peer review so that we don’t take things that generally. We avoid the risk of reporting normal abnormality as galamsey,” he said.
He also warned that unvetted data could cause unnecessary fear. “I am just saying that the way the data is being thrown around, it will cause too much fear and panic. We can advocate without using data that has not been peer-reviewed.
“It was never as if I am saying galamsey has no effects. I am just saying that let data that are coming out be peer-reviewed data, not one man hiding somewhere doing his research and then suddenly that is the golden standard when his peers have not reviewed,” he added.
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