Environmental health surveillance as a response to the tailing dam disruption disaster in Brumadinho

Abstract

Environmental health is the field of public health responsible for public policies related to the interaction between human health and environmental factors. Disaster risk management involves a process of anticipating, planning, and preparing for a response, with actions from different areas of the government, such as the health sector. This experience report had the objective of describing the actions developed by the environmental health surveillance of the Minas Gerais State Department of Health in response to the rupture of the B1 dam in Brumadinho. Among the actions developed, the monitoring of the quality of water for human consumption in the affected municipalities, the participation in meetings in spaces for decision and deliberation, and the production of technical documents are highlighted. The  experiences lived by the team, during the disaster response actions, motivated reflections on the need to strengthen the development of the actions in an intra and intersectoral way, as well as the importance of qualifying the data recorded in the information systems, and knowledge of the local information of each territory, in order to subsidize the performance of the health sector in a timely manner in disaster situations.