Chemical safety and governance in Brazil.

Chemical safety is recognized in Agenda 21(UNCED--Rio 92), as one of the most serious problems to be faced worldwide being a problem not just of governability, restricted more to the role of states and governments, but of governance at the national and international levels. It poses greater challenges for countries like Brazil where the issues of democracy, security, sustainability and equity, which are fundamental to governance, are merely incipient and still far from solved. Taking as references the analysis of four cases in the Brazilian context, we illustrate the situation from less densely populated areas (as in the cases of mercury use by gold miners in the Amazon and pesticides in agricultural producing areas), through medium-sized towns (as in the accident with cesium 137 in Goiânia), to the major urban and industrial centers (as in the cases of lead from battery renovators and benzene in the oil and steel industries and oil refineries). What can be seen is a situation where problems connected with chemical safety have grown in intensity and extent far more than the capacity to deal with them. In industrializing countries, the formulation of chemical safety policies must take into account not only the complexity and uncertainties involved in understanding the problems, but also the aspects relating to the different modes and levels of vulnerability. This is necessary in order to attempt to build better contextualized and more participatory knowledge and decision-making processes at the local and global levels, which we take as basic prerequisites for governance.

[Biological monitoring: concepts and applications in public health]. / Monitoramento biológico: conceitos e aplicações em saúde pública.

This study provides an overview of the theoretical discussion on potential uses for biological monitoring of exposure to chemical substances as related to human health, considering different concepts: definitions, uses, and limitations of internal dose and biological effect indicators and their availability for the substances to be quantified; knowledge of reference values, action levels, and limits based on health and negotiated patterns in biological monitoring interpretation and perspectives; and ethical and social problems in practice and within different preventive practices and their use in public health. Biological monitoring is the result of an exposure situation with conclusions based on scientific and consensus values, rules, and legislation. Biological monitoring as a continuous process and related to actually observed cases has helped establish technological exposure reference values and consensus levels as indicators for improving the environment and the workplace. As a step in the decision-making process in risk analysis, biological monitoring needs to be critically assessed as to its ethical aspects in light of the end use of results and values, which are references for application of this methodology.

[Occupational lead exposure assessment: a proposal for a strategy to monitor prevention of clinical and subclinical effects]. / Avaliação da exposição ocupacional ao chumbo: proposta de um estratégia de monitoramento para prevenção dos efeitos clínicos e subclínicos.

In developing countries, lead-acid battery factories are one of the heaviest consumers of lead. Due to lead's toxicological properties and prevalent working conditions in such factories, workers are subject to high exposure and health risk. This study discusses results obtained by lead exposure assessment of workers from a Rio de Janeiro battery factory, in light of Brazilian legislation and recent scientific data. Evaluation methods used were environmental (personal air sampling) and biological (determination of lead in blood, Pb-B) monitoring, showing a high personal exposure both in air (>0.1 mg/m3) and blood (55% of Pb-B >25 microg/dl). These results confirmed the inefficiency of current control measures, with a possible 46% of workers presenting a Pb-B range of 25-60 microg/dl in risk areas. Recent data suggest that Pb-B levels above 25 microg/dl are related to subclinical alterations in human body that should be investigated during clinical examination. Finally, we propose a strategy based on environmental and biological monitoring to prevent both clinical and subclinical effects.

[Study of exposure to and health effects of atmospheric metallic mercury pollution in an urban population of Poconé, Mato Grosso, Brazil] / Estudo dos níveis de exposição e efeitos à saúde por mercúrio metálico em uma população urbana de Poconé, Mato Grosso, Brasil.

This paper evaluates the levels of exposure to and health effects of metallic mercury emissions into the atmosphere by gold dealers in the town of Poconé, Mato Grosso State, Brazil. The project was based on the comparison of referred morbidity, clinical examination, and metallic mercury urinary concentrations in three population groups. The first group consisted of downtown residents who were exposed to metallic mercury emissions. The second group resided on the outskirts of the town and the third in an agricultural area. Urinary concentrations of metallic mercury showed highly significant differences between groups from downtown and the outskirts as compared to the control group. Investigation of individuals with high concentrations showed that exposure in the downtown area might have come from gold dealers' establishments. In the group from the town outskirts, exposure might have been from amalgam-smelting done inside homes. Referred morbidity data showed an increased proportion of complaints and alterations in clinical examinations by downtown residents as compared to the other groups.It was concluded that there was a possibility of exposure and health effects caused by metallic mercury for residents from the first two groups.