NEWS FROM BRAZIL
supplied by SEJUP
North America
Updates Service
November 20, 1996
ECOLOGY
- 300 thousand poisoned by agro-toxics each year.
At least 300 thousand people suffer poisoning from agro- toxics each year in Brazil according to calculations of the Ministry of Health; this number also tends to increase annually. 6 thousand such cases were reported in Brazil in 1993 - according to World Health Organization estimations there are 50 cases of poisoning for every case reported. Thus approximately 10% of the total number of annual poisoning in the world each year from such products happens in Brazil where sales have shown a marked increase since 1992. Sales in that year amounted to US $1 billion; estimated value of sales for this current year are in the region of US $1.7 billion. Experts in the area attribute this increase in large part to the reclassification of such products.
In December 1992 and January 1993, the Ministry of Health revised the toxicological values of agro-toxics used in Brazil. Products previously classified as extremely toxic (sold with a red band) and highly toxic (sold with a yellow band) were reclassified as toxic (blue band) or slightly toxic (green band). "This provoked the increase of cases of poisoning in rural areas" commented Sebastiao Pinheiro of the Brazilian Institute of Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA). According to Pinheiro, the reclassification of the color bands gave a false security to purchasers of such products who "can now buy highly dangerous products which display a less dangerous color band and the purchaser does not receive orientations about the dangers of such products.... The fact that reclassification took place after pressure from the agro-toxic industry puts the entire process under suspicion".
Lawyer Letecia Rodrigues da Silva of the Interdisciplinary Group of Health and Agriculture in Rio Grande do Sul agrees. She calculates that between 70% and 80% of all registered agro-toxics were reclassified from red and yellow color bands (highly poisonous) to blue and green color bands. Ministry for Health spokes-people on the other hand claim that the reclassification followed norms of the World Health Organization. Likewise a spokesperson for the industries manufacturing and selling agro- toxics claims that the use of such products has risen due to the fact that larger areas are being planted and that the incidence of diseases combated by such products have increased. However a study carried out this year in five states - Bahia, Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo, Parana and Rio de Janeiro shows that 7.2 people per 100 thousand inhabitants have suffered poisoning from such products as compared to 3.95 per 100 thousand in 1993.
In the neighboring municipalities of Petrolina (Bahia) and Jauzeiro (Bahia) 981 blood tests were carried out on workers in the Brazilian Agro and Bovine Research Company. 21.7% of the tests showed the probability of a high level of poisoning. A health spokesperson for the Health Secretariat in the State of Pernambuco commenting on the incidents of poisonings from agro- toxics in the state remarked "The problem is serious but we are not notified of the majority of cases. This makes more difficult the implementation of a policy for this question". He went on to comment that there is a high suicide rate amongst rural workers in the state. Last year 68 of a total of 304 suicides (22.36%) in Pernambuco were committed by rural workers. Last month, one of the hospitals in Pertolina attended 50 cases of poisoning by agro-toxics. "It is a high number which tends to increase" commented a spokesperson for the hospital.
(Based on a report in the 'Folha de Sao Paulo' on November 13 last.
- 1% of Atlantic Rainforest lost each year.
The State of Parana and the south of the State of Bahia are the regions in Brazil which lost the largest areas of the Atlantic Rainforest between 1990 and 1995 according to the NGO SOS Mata Atlantica. On November 19, SOS celebrated 10 years of existence. Today Brazil has a mere 8.8% of the original forest cover which is concentrated near the coast. Originally the forest covered 1.1 billion square kms; today it covers 98 million square kms.
70% of the population of the country lives in the same coastal strip where the forest is found. According to calculations, 1% of the Atlantic Rainforest is lost each year. Calculations in the State of Parana indicate that 50 thousand square meters of the forest are cleared every hour. In Sao Paulo because of the expansion of house construction in coastal areas, 20 thousand square meters are cleared on average per hour.
