Brazil: Rapid Increase in New Pesticide Registrations during Bolsonaro Administration

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil has seen an upsurge in new pesticide registrations under the administration of President Jair Bolsonaro, as Larissa Bombardi, professor and researcher at the University of São Paulo’s Institute of Geography, explains in a recently released video.

Bombardi is considered one of the most successful scientists in the pesticide field in Brazil. In the video, she describes some of the main features of highly dangerous substances that were recently approved in the first 18 months of the Bolsonaro administration, since the start of 2019.

The increase in pesticide registrations is tremendous when compared to the Workers’ Party (PT) government which was ousted in 2016 and registered approximately 98 new pesticides per year since 2003.

Half of the 680 new registrations in the period between early 2019 and the end of June 2020 are herbicides, one-third insecticides and one-sixth other poisons. Of the 113 active pesticide ingredients contained in the 680 products, one-third are banned in the EU due to their harmful toxic effects on humans and the environment.

As an example of the seven best-selling “agricultural poisons” in Brazil, she highlights the active ingredient acephate, an insecticide that has been banned in Europe since 2003. Acephate is poisonous to nerves and cells and damages embryos in utero.

The herbicide atrazine from chemical companies Syngenta (Switzerland) and Bayer-Monsanto, which has been banned in the EU since 2004 and in Switzerland since 2007, is said to cause Parkinson’s disease, stomach, prostate, ovarian and lymph nodes cancer, and non-Hogdkin lymphoma (another type of cancer).

Finally, in August last year, the Brazilian regulatory authority ANVISA performed a curious toxicity reclassification of all pesticides in which the toxicity of many substances formerly classified as “highly toxic” was significantly downgraded.

According to Marcos Pedlowski, associate professor at the State University of Northern Rio de Janeiro, the problem is not only for Brazilians but for all countries that import the contaminated products produced and exported by Brazil.

The German NGO Testbiotech, specialized in pesticides and genetic engineering, has long criticized the fact that 30 to 40 million tons of soybeans are imported annually into the EU from countries like Brazil, but also from Argentina and the USA, most of which are genetically modified and massively sprayed with herbicide compounds.

These herbicide blends contain glyphosate and other highly toxic herbicides. The imported crop is routinely infected with these residues. However, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) considered that the available data were insufficient to assess the health risks to consumers in the EU.

According to Pedlowski, the Bolsonaro government is also seizing this time to push for the approval of pesticides. Since the release of Professor Bombardi’s video last week, a further 29 pesticides have been approved by the Ministry of Agriculture.