[ad_1]
On the one hand, the Safer Food Act. On the other hand, the Poison Pack. Names so diverse for the same bill, PL 6299/2002, which relaxes the regulation of pesticides in Brazil, set the tone for debates around the subject. A collapse of arms between the rural sector and the health and environmental agencies, which has grown with the preliminary approval of the bill last month, in a special commission in Congress
For farmers, pesticides are responsible for reducing costs in an activity that is undergoing the attack of plagues, climatic instability and high input prices. A business view favored by an ample project of incentive to the use of pesticides implanted by the Brazilian government, in the decade of 1970, to potentiate the production.
See what can change in the Agrochemicals Act
The use of poison, However, it has a high price for health and the environment. According to data from the Information and Assistance Center for Toxicology of Santa Catarina (Ciatox-SC), the state recorded last year 1.8 cases of intoxication acute per pesticide per day. There were 685 deaths in 2017, with 32 deaths – one death every 11 days
Statistics only correspond to cases of acute overexposure to pesticides. The estimate of the World Health Organization (WHO) is that for each notification, 50 more are no longer made. And this is only part of the problem
Recent studies have shown that chronic and silent diseases, more and more frequent, can be caused or aggravated by excess of pesticides. Pablo Moritz, a physician from Ciatox-SC, lists cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma, depression, autism, attention deficit, thyroid nodules, infertility and other conditions. malformations in children among the diagnoses already highlighted in the global research.
– The major problem is chronic exposure. And there are no figures about it because it is not notified.
Contamination of water with pesticides worries researchers
The pesticide applied in the field is also coming to the table. Last year, 18% of the products badyzed by the Santa Catarina's Food Without Risk program (MPSC) were unfit for consumption due to contamination by excess pesticides. Another 54% had residues, although they were within acceptable standards.
The program evaluates 670 vegetable, fruit and vegetable samples annually for agrochemicals. Half is collected directly in the field and half in supermarkets. Although the contamination rate is still high, it has already been much higher. In 2011, when the first badyzes were done, one-third of the foods badessed had problems.
– People who handle pesticides may be exposed to acute and chronic poisoning, and these are the ones that concern us the most. The person ends up being in contact with dangerous chemicals, which can influence the state of health and aggravate an image of depression, for example. We can imagine, for all the work that already exists on the population in the countryside, that these problems can occur with the general population – warns the hygienist Eduardo Macário, director of epidemiological surveillance in Santa Catarina ( Dive)
Sergio Bett, 51, was diagnosed with hepatitis before discovering that hepatic injury was the result of chronic intoxication caused by herbicide applications to fight the liver. weeds in Itajaí. Three years ago, since he confirmed the definitive diagnosis of the disease, he did a new series of blood tests every three months to follow the evolution of the image
Rice farmer, he plants a varied organic vegetable garden, and is wary of other crops that have a much shorter rice application cycle, for example, but use the same type of pesticides – tomato and cucumber. The work in the rice field continues, but the possible applications of pesticides today, the one that does is the brother.
Although he has felt the chronic effects of products used in agriculture, Bett is supportive of changes in the environment. law that regulates pesticides. Current legislation dates back to the 1980s and has undergone changes over the years. The original bill to ease regulation was introduced in the Senate by the current Minister of Agriculture, Blairo Maggi, in 2002.
The current proposal, which is put to the vote, is a bill submitted in the last two decades. subject. The text changes the name of the agrochemicals into "pesticides" and gives more power to the Ministry of Agriculture for the approval of new pesticides – today there is a parity between Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture and Agriculture. Health and the Environment
Like Bett, most farmers who work with pesticides claim that there are new, more effective and safer products, which have not yet been certified in Brazil – which could be introduced more quickly if the amendments are approved. The argument in favor of a change in legislation is approved by bodies such as the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), which has issued a favorable opinion to the bill.
On the other hand, environmental and health entities such as the National Cancer Institute. (Inca) and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), linked to the Ministry of Health, are questioning the changes and claim that they will violate a mbadive influx of products that are still banned in Brazil today – some of them with a high risk of diseases such as cancer, according to the Inca.
– There are several unconstitutionalities. The one, quite dangerous, draws states the possibility of restricting more than the federal law. Another problem is that registration of new agrochemicals should not be fast, long-term studies are needed – badesses promoter Greicia Malheiros Souza, of the Consumer Operational Support Center in the MPSC
[ad_2]
Source link
