With an increasing global demand for metals, mining companies must scale up their mining operations in order to meet this demand at the expense of the environment. The huge demand arises from the essential role of mining in society, which is to produce various products for the benefit of the people. These products range from small, portable devices that make everyday life easier to large machines that support the foundations of society. However, mining generates a variety of byproducts that affect the environment, for better or worse. These byproducts are often composed of chemicals and metals not found in nature. Some chemicals pose no significant threat to the environment, while others are toxic to animals and plants and can take years to clean up. It is imperative to address the issue of regulating the disposal of mining waste due to the potential damage that mining waste can cause to the environment. . Mining waste is composed of unwanted heavy metals as well as solvents and compounds used to chemically extract the ores. These chemicals are often unnatural in the environment and can cause significant damage to various parts of the body. For example, metals found in mining waste, such as arsenic, manganese, lead, and cadmium, have been shown to alter dopamine release in rats. The study, published in 1998, demonstrated that "rats exposed to mining waste released more dopamine, less DOPAC, and less HVA by approximately 15, 50, and 55 pentagrams per microliter, respectively, compared to unexposed rats." to mining waste upon release. "dopamine] is stimulated" (Rodriguez, et.al 489). It is important to note that these metals constitute only a fraction of mining waste and mining industries produce more waste than what is exposed middle of paper......danao Philippines. Total Environmental Science 354.1-2 (February 2006): 198-211. Web.Pastor, Nuria, Raquel Baos, Miguel Lopez-Lazaro, Roger Jovanni, Jose L. Tella, Habil Hajji, Fernando Hiraldo and Felipe Cortes. “A 4-year follow-up analysis of genotoxic damage in birds in the Donana region (southwest Spain) following the 1998 mining waste spill.” Mutagenesis 19.1 (2004): 61-5. Web.Rodríguez, Verónica M., Leticia Dufour, Leticia Carrizales, Fernando Díaz-Barriga and Maria E. Jiménez-Capdeville. “Effects of oral exposure to mining waste on in vivo dopamine release from rat striatum.” Environmental Health Perspectives 106.8 (1998): 487-91. Web. Struckhoff, Matthew A., Esther D. Stroh, and Keith W. Grabner. “Effects of mining-associated lead and zinc soil contamination on native floristic quality.” Journal of Environmental Management 119.4 (2013): 20-8. Web.