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Mining disasters and public health in Brazil: lessons (not) learned.
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Heller, Léo |
| Copyright Year | 2019 |
| Abstract | This article is published in Open Access under the Creative Commons Attribution license, which allows use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, without restrictions, as long as the original work is correctly cited. By publishing a Thematic Section on the Vale tailing dam disaster in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, Cadernos de Saúde Pública is honoring an important mission by calling on the academic community to reflect on the worst social and environmental disaster in Brazil’s history and one of the most serious in the world. In three articles, the journal’s readers will have the opportunity to examine current knowledge on the disaster’s causes and effects. With well-crafted reporting based on the available evidence soon after the disaster, Milanez et al. 1 unveil the dynamics of the state’s hijacking by the mining industry and corporate tentacles in environmental policy. Freitas et al. 2 focus on public health and the organization of services to examine the links between the Samarco and Vale disasters. Noal et al. 3 address the relevant issue of the disaster’s impacts on the mental health of a large contingent of victims and the psychosocial care mobilized in the initial phase of the response. From the onset, we should emphasize that the tragedy in Brumadinho is inacceptable and unjustifiable, considering the consternation, outrage, and revolt among the victims themselves and all of us who still adhere to basic civilized values. However, perhaps the most worrisome feeling is that of powerlessness: how could the Feijão dam have collapsed just over three years after the Fundão dam burst in Mariana, Minas Gerais State? Even more so when the most recent tragedy amplified the order of magnitude of deaths from dozens to hundreds, and of victims (depending on how the latter are defined). “Neither God nor Newton are to blame” 4, i.e., the mining disasters have individual and institutional culprits: persons, companies, and government agencies. Agents that cause crimes and violate numerous human rights of a huge population contingent. In one’s state of bewilderment provoked by the Vale disaster, the first and obvious question is: How could Feijão have happened after Fundão? Several other questions stem from the first; they may seem obvious, but they need to be repeated, since they point to lessons only partially learned – and not turned into public policies – and even to other questions still unanswered. Some of these are: Mining disasters and public health in Brazil: lessons (not) learned |
| Starting Page | e00073619 |
| Ending Page | e00073619 |
| Page Count | 1 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1590/0102-311X00073619 |
| PubMed reference number | 31116250 |
| Journal | Medline |
| Volume Number | 35 |
| Issue Number | 5 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://scielosp.org/pdf/csp/2019.v35n5/e00073619/en |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-311X00073619 |
| Journal | Cadernos de saude publica |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
