GEO Brasil - UNEP

The state of health and the environment
the state of the environment in Brazil
of which on health has not been an object of systematic
assessment, nor of health surveillance programmes
The use of biocide products, as a sole or preferred
instrument to tackle certain endemic vectors, must be
revised urgently For example, until not long ago, malaria
control was based on the use of DDT (organochlorine
product highly persistent in the environment), a product
that causes damages to flora, fauna and human health
Being a clear example that a large part of health problems
originated from environmental risks must be treated with
integrated policies The recent term of technical co-operation
signed by the Brazilian Ministries of Environment and Health
must contribute towards this process
The deaths by poisoning are mainly related to acute
exposures to chemical fertiliser substances, domestic
cleaning products and industrial chemical products The
Brazilian National Poisoning Information System –
SINITOX (Sistema de Informação Tóxico-farmacológica)
registered 398 deaths by exposure to chemical fertiliser
products in 1999 Of those, 140 were considered of
occupational origin This kind of data do not mirror the
reality, once the registration presents a considerable
secondary notification, due to the small coverage of the
data collection system at national level, that counts on 29
centres only, most of them located in state capitals
(SINITOX 2002) The World Health Organisation informs
that 70 per cent of human intoxication cases by chemical
fertiliser substances occur in developing countries (WHO
1995) Some studies seeking to assess levels of occupational
contamination by chemical fertiliser products in Brazilian
rural areas have registered human contamination levels
varying from 3 to 23 per cent (Almeida & Garcia 1991, Faria
et al 2000, Gonzaga et al 1992) By using the minimum limit
reported in these studies and knowing the Brazilian rural
population involved in agricultural activities, it is possible
to estimate that the number of contaminated individuals
directly by chemical fertiliser products in Brazil must be
approximately 540,000, with around 4,000 deaths a year
Also in accordance with SINITOX 1999 data, 66,584 cases
of human intoxication were registered in Brazil The
Southeast presents a proportion of 4237 per cent of all
registered occurrences and the South, 3365 per cent The
poor registration of intoxication cases in other regions is
mainly originated by the lack of intoxication control services,
or their disorganisation There are 4,760 cases related to
work environment
The use of biocides in urban areas surpasses their use in
rural areas, due to insufficient basic sanitation The
populations get uncomfortable with insects or rodents that
lower their quality of life and some of them objectively pose
risks to human health Several products are proven harmful
to human health and their consumption, however, is
promoted by permissive advertisement and by how easy it
is to obtain licences for their commercialisation and use,
without any technical guidance This situation is also likely
to aggravate the problem related to respiratory diseases,
specially allergy-based ones, and the occurrence of
haematological and immunological diseases There are only
few studies that investigate the association of diseases to
the use of domestic biocides, and they are based on acute
intoxication cases only
The rural population, consisting mostly of workers with no
qualification, became even more vulnerable to damage by
exposure to these toxic products The use of chemical
fertiliser substances was promoted by an official policy of
conditioning the rural financial credit to the compulsory
use of chemical fertiliser products This situation is
responsible for a large number of deaths by acute
intoxication of rural workers
The contamination that results from this agricultural
productive process is not limited to the area or the workers,
it is exported through environmental (air and water) and
food contamination It is more difficult to elaborate
estimates on contaminated urban population; but the
official numbers clearly show the importance of this
segment The contamination resulting from the direct use
of pesticides and the indirect exposure occurring mainly
through the contact with contaminated environments or
food contribute towards data production
A preliminary study carried out by the National Institute for
Quality Control in Health/ Oswaldo Cruz Institute – INCQS/
FIOCRUZ – to assess the level of contamination by residues
of pesticides on Brazilian fruits (strawberry, tomato and
papaya) sold to consumers, revealed contamination in
around 35 per cent of the samples, and a large regional
variation was also observed In the specific case of papaya,
it was noted that this contamination reached 70 per cent of
assessed samples in the Northeast It is also important to
emphasise that the contamination observed occurred due
to the use of a determined chemical fertiliser product
(dicofol), which is not authorised for those crops This
proves a complete lack of technical guidance and inspection
on the part of relevant governmental organisms Besides,
this chemical fertiliser product is being submitted to a
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