This scoping review (PRISMA-ScR methodology) systematically mapped mining tailings dam disasters reported worldwide between 2015 and 2025 and characterized the available evidence on their human health impacts. The review addressed two questions: (1) What mining tailings dam disasters were reported worldwide between 2015 and 2025? and (2) What evidence is available on their impacts on human health? The review searched Web of Science, Scopus, MEDLINE, Google Scholar, and institutional sources from WISE, UNEP, GRID-Arendal, and WHO.
Key numbers
- 49 mining tailings dam disasters officially recorded worldwide 2015-2025; 6 overflow events, 43 tailings dam failures.
- Geographical distribution: Asia 41%, South America 33%, Africa 14%, North America 10%.
- Human consequences: 670 deaths, 112 injuries, approximately 75 missing persons; at least 728 displaced people and 55 displaced families.
- Gold was the mineral commodity most frequently involved in reported disasters.
- Arsenic and lead were the most frequently reported potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in tailings from these disasters, followed by mercury, manganese, and zinc.
- Population-based health studies: only 2 of 49 disasters have been investigated in population-based studies directly evaluating human health outcomes after the events (Mariana, Brazil 2015; Brumadinho, Brazil 2019).
- Final evidence synthesis: 14 studies included, covering only the Mariana and Brumadinho disasters.
- Evidence classification: Level 1 (biomonitoring), Level 2 (documented health outcomes and system indicators), Level 3 (exposure-outcome associations).
- Brumadinho (2019) iron-ore tailings dam: 272 deaths (Brazil’s deadliest workplace accident).
Methods (brief)
Scoping review; PRISMA-ScR reporting standards. Two-stage search: structured database search (Web of Science, Scopus, MEDLINE, Google Scholar) plus targeted event-based gray literature search. Disaster event inventory from WISE Uranium Project 2025 (primary source), cross-checked against UNEP, GRID-Arendal, WHO, and government sources. Health studies included if they evaluated populations directly affected by specific tailings dam disasters with biomonitoring, health outcomes, or exposure-outcome association data. Studies of environmental contamination without human health data excluded. Data extracted on disaster characteristics, tailings volume, PTEs, deaths/injuries/displacement, and health evidence type.
Evidence fitness
Supports: establishing that arsenic and lead are the dominant potentially toxic elements released in tailings dam failures, that such disasters cause documented mortality and displacement, and that the global health evidence base is severely underdeveloped (only 2 of 49 disasters with population-based studies). Provides context for the arsenic environmental contamination and inhalation/water exposure pathways in disaster settings. This is a scoping review of disaster events, not a source for food arsenic concentrations or dietary exposure data, and it does not directly measure respiratory outcomes in affected populations.
Limitations
Scoping review design cannot support causal inference; event inventory may undercount disasters in regions with limited reporting; near-complete absence of population-based health studies for 47 of 49 disasters is itself the finding, not a limitation of the review methodology; arsenic and lead PTE frequencies are based on available reporting, which is biased toward well-investigated events; health evidence from Mariana and Brumadinho may not generalize to other commodity types or geologies.
Related evidence
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