Changes to pesticide law should be rejected, says Human Rights Watch.
"Instead of further weakening its laws, Brazil urgently needs a plan to reduce the use of highly hazardous pesticides," declared Richard Pearshouse, associate director of the environmental program at Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Sputnik Agency - Human Rights Watch (HRW) recommended this Friday (20) that Brazil reject the reform of its pesticide legislation currently under discussion in the Chamber of Deputies and urgently study a plan to reduce the use of highly dangerous pesticides.
"Instead of further weakening its laws, Brazil urgently needs a plan to reduce the use of highly hazardous pesticides," Richard Pearshouse, associate director of HRW's environmental program, told AFP.
The report "You Don't Want to Breathe Poison Anymore" compiles 73 testimonies of poisoning in seven Brazilian states: Bahia, Pará, Paraná, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, and Goiás. The document recommends creating schools free of pesticide-containing food and suspending the aerial spraying of these products until the Executive branch conducts a study on the impact on human and environmental health.
Aerial spraying of pesticides is a prohibited practice in the European Union.
"Chronic exposure to pesticides, even in low doses, is associated with infertility, negative impacts on fetal development, cancer, and other serious health consequences," the report says.
Human Rights Watch says that "official data on pesticide poisonings underestimate the severity of the problem" and that the state's role in monitoring pesticide residues in food and drinking water is "weak."
Bill 6.299/2002, dubbed by critics as the "Poison Bill," was drafted by agricultural businessman and current Minister of Agriculture, Blairo Maggi, when he was a senator. The potential new legislation has already been approved in the Senate and by a special committee in the Chamber of Deputies.
One of the changes in the text is to make the Ministry of Agriculture solely responsible for granting pesticide registration, removing the current responsibilities of IBAMA and ANVISA (National Health Surveillance Agency). These agencies will only be responsible for approving risk assessments of the products.
The pesticide market in Brazil generated US$9,56 billion in products in 2016, according to the National Union of the Plant Protection Products Industry (SINDIVEG). This figure makes Brazil the largest market in the world for this type of product, says the Brazilian Association of Collective Health (ABRASCO).