O uso de agrotóxicos no sudoeste do Paraná a partir de uma perspectiva geográfica multiescalar

Abstract

The general objective of this thesis was to discuss the problem involving the use of pesticides in the geographical space, specifically in 27 cities in southwestern Paraná (which make up the Eighth Health Regional Unit), from a geographical and multiscalar perspective. Therefore, first, the methodological procedures were based on a bibliographic review, presenting the problem of pesticides as a hybrid theme and outlining a theoretical approach anchored by Agrarian Geography, in Political Ecology field and focusing on Environmental Geography. The second stage consisted of collecting and analyzing secondary data from official agencies on the use of pesticides in Brazil and Paraná, as well as data on acute poisoning by pesticides. The third stage involved the creation of an instrument of epidemiological inquiry (questionnaire on exposure to pesticides), the development of a database and statistical analysis, as well as fieldwork and laboratory analysis that included samples of biological material (urine), water and bovine milk from ten Family Production and Life Units (UPVFs), located in southwestern Paraná. The results showed that, based on the logic of prioritizing capitalist agriculture, pesticides have been used in Brazilian territory at all scales. In the period between 2009 and 2019, there was an increase of 103% in the volume traded in the country, which is mainly destined for soybean, corn and sugar cane crops. Brazil figures, in the international scenario, along with United States and China, as one of the countries that most consume pesticides in the world. Furthermore, even though there are resistance and denouncing initiatives through national campaigns and research within universities, the number of active ingredients released has increased, as well as attempts to make the regulatory framework more flexible through Law Project 6,299/2002. In Paraná and in the Southwest Mesoregion, the reality is not different. The state sells approximately one hundred thousand tons of pesticides per year, mainly for soybean, corn and wheat crops. In addition, among the most commercialized are those classified as potentially carcinogenic to humans. In the nanoterritorial scale, that is, in the ten UPVFs investigated, contamination was identified in the drinking water samples by: Glyphosate (62.5%), 2,4-D (44.4%) and Atrazine (41.6%). In the samples of bovine milk, the presence of Glyphosate (71.4%), 2,4-D (60%) and Atrazine (75%) were also detected, as well as in the urine samples of pesticide applicators and their families: Glyphosate (58.3%), 2,4-D (34.7%) and Atrazine (84.6%). We defend, therefore, that capitalist economic rationality imposes a pattern of agriculture based on the agricultural commodities production and, consequently, on the use of a technological package full of chemical products. Among such products, pesticides stand out, which, under the increasing the productivity and profitability of agriculture arguments, end up contaminating ecosystems, adversely affecting the health of the subjects who use them in an occupational way, just as those who consume contaminated food and water.