Pesticide use in Brazil and problems for public health.

Pesticides are currently a major public health problem, considering the size of the exposed population in pesticide plants and surrounding areas, in farming, in fighting endemics and other sectors, in the vicinity of farming areas, and ultimately all of us, who are consumers of contaminated products. Between 2007 and 2011, according to data from the Information System of Compulsory Notification Conditions (SINAN), there was an increase of 67.4% of new non-fatal labor accidents due to pesticides, and the coefficient of intoxications had an overall increase of 126.8%, and was even higher among women (178%) 1. However, underdiagnosis and under-notification are widely acknowledged for acute cases – the limitation is even higher when it comes to the assessment of the chronic effects of pesticides –, which is explained by the gradual increase in consumption and intensification of use of such substances in Brazil. The Brazilian pesticide market experienced a rapid expansion over the last decade (190%), at a pace of growth more than double that of the global market (93%), placing Brazil at the top of the world rank, since 2008. According to the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) 2, for the 2010/2011 harvest, 936,000 tons were used, involving financial transactions of US$ 8.5 billion among ten companies that control 75% of the market in the country. The permission for the use of transgenic seeds in crops, and their dissemination in farming areas are associated with increase in consumption, taking into account the intensive use of herbicides, accountable for 45% of the volume used, followed by fungicides (14%), and insecticides (12%). The results of the Food Pesticide Residues Analysis Program, developed by ANVISA, show that in 2011 only 22% of the 1,628 samples analysed were free from these contaminants. Attention is drawn to the presence of at least two pesticides that have never been registered in Brazil, azaconazole and tebufenpyrad, which suggest product smuggling 2 and lack of control of public policies. The management of water contamination for human use by the health surveillance system, regulated by Ordinance n. 2,914/2011 is limited to cities of the Southern and Southeastern regions of Brazil, which does not allow for the situation in the whole of the country to be known 3. When considering the perspectives of future scenarios in relation to the use of pesticides in Brazil, one must look into the social disputes that exist, in which agents struggle for distinct, often contradictory, projects and interests, including ethical values that guide them. On one hand, there are the social agents committed to the modernization of farming, according to the current trend of the interna-