Citation

Nishijima M, Rocha FF. J. Environ. Manage. 2019; 253: e109748.

Affiliation

Department of Economics, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Electronic address: frocha@usp.br.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.109748

PMID

31678687

Abstract

On November 2015, the Fundão Tailings Dam, located at Mariana municipality in Brazil, failed. Besides the deaths and injuries, economic losses, pollution and health problems associated to heavy metals in the water, Brazilian municipalities near the accident experienced an increase in the incidence of dengue. Since dengue fever is an insect-borne disease and the mosquito develops where there is stored water, there must be a relationship between the dam accident and the incidence of the disease. The purpose of this study is to test whether there is a causal relationship between the dam accident in Mariana and the number of dengue cases, number of hospitalizations due to dengue, and dengue outbreak in the municipalities affected by the accident. We find evidence that the accident had a positive and statistically significant impact on dengue indicators (for example, the probability of a dengue outbreak increased in 19%), what makes us call attention to another negative externality of tailings dam accidents.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Brazil; Dam accident; Dengue outbreak; Mariana