Deputies pressure Anvisa and Ibama with CPI on pesticides – 04/23/2023 – Environment

Deputies seek signatures to create a CPI (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) on acts by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) and Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) that barred pesticides considered harmful to health.

Proposed by Bolsonarist Paulo Bilynskyj (PL-SP), the request states that the bodies favor the interests of some companies and harm the rural producer.

The request asks that “irregularities practiced in the procedures adopted in the toxicological and environmental reassessments of pesticides” conducted by Anvisa and Ibama be investigated. According to the document, both incur infractions and crimes against the economic order related to market concentration.

Members of Anvisa consider the CPI an attempt to pressure for the return to the market of products that were banned because of the health risk to consumers and field workers.

So far, according to the parliamentarian’s office, more than 122 deputies have signed the request – at least 171 signatures are needed to file the request. A Sheet asked and did not have access to the list of supporters to check the number of signatures.

One of the main associations of rural producers, Aprosoja, distributed a letter to parliamentarians asking for support for the CPI. The text is signed by the president of the entity, Antonio Galvan, the target of search and seizure in 2021 by the Federal Police for leading acts preaching the invasion of Congress and the deposition of the ministers of the STF (Federal Supreme Court).

In the letter, the organization argues that the measures prevent access to new products and remove pesticides that have no substitutes from the market.

Aprosoja also indicates that “a good part of these pesticides were withdrawn from the Brazilian market and are still in use in countries such as the USA, Australia, Canada and Argentina, just to name a few, which compete with Brazil in the world market for grains and fibers”.

The CPI request cites Anvisa decisions that vetoed the use of paraquat and carbendazim, pesticides that were used on a large scale in the countryside.

Paraquat is linked to the incidence of Parkinson’s disease among farmers and was banned in late 2020.

The CPI requirement states that the exit of this product left a gap in the market, as the production of the substitute pesticide, Diquat, is concentrated in a few companies.

In the case of carbendazim, Anvisa barred the product in 2022 considering the potential to “cause mutagenicity, toxicity to reproductive physiology and toxicity to embryofetal and neonatal development”.

The agency also stated that there is no safe limit for exposure to pesticides.

Members of the health regulatory agency went to Congress to try to deflate the attempt to create the CPI. The argument presented to parliamentarians is that the revisions are based on technical analyses.

In the reassessment process, Anvisa selects pesticides that may pose a risk to the health of consumers and rural workers and analyzes whether they should be kept on the market.

This list of products was prepared by the agency considering the “risk of causing cancer, alterations in human DNA, mutations, reproductive and endocrine problems, among others”, according to a note from the regulatory body in 2019.

The registration of pesticides does not have an expiration date. That is, the products can be marketed indefinitely.

Anvisa states, on its website, that it carries out reassessments to analyze whether it is safe to continue using these ingredients, based on new information produced by monitoring systems and scientific research.

When contacted, Anvisa did not comment on the CPI request.

The entities representing the largest pesticide producers do not publicly support the CPI. The sector defends the approval of a bill that loosens sanitary control for the registration of pesticides, called “PL do Veneno” by opponents of the text. The bill is currently stalled in the Senate.

The Sindiveg (National Union of the Industry of Plant Defense Products) stated, in a note, that it trusts in Brazilian institutions and in the productive potential of national agriculture.

“Throughout these years, the entity has been actively and technically contributing to the competent bodies for the construction of a robust, modern and science-based regulatory framework, with a view to cooperation with socioeconomic growth”, says the companies’ union.

The FPA (Frente Parlamentar da Agropecuária) does not publicly support or call for a veto of the idea of ​​a CPI.

The CPI installation request is 30 pages long. A first-term parliamentarian, Bilynskyj told the Sheet who does not master themes related to agriculture and who received information from an anonymous whistleblower.

He says, however, that his experience in the Public Ministry enables him to analyze the case and argues that Anvisa and Ibama use the pretext that pesticides are harmful to health to, in fact, strengthen the large industry of producers.

“Do you know what Alzheimer’s is? Like, it’s been a million years since this disease has existed and no one can say that. So you take something unrelated and say: ‘It causes Alzheimer’s'”, he said. “You [o órgão] is focused on getting the result. What is the result? Monopoly.”

Contacted by the report, Ibama did not respond. The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, in turn, claimed to respect the autonomy of the Powers and said that the CPI is a prerogative of the Legislature.

“It is worth noting, however, that bills dealing with the issue of pesticides are already being processed, thus allowing a broad and efficient debate on the subject”, he added.

“In view of the advancement of research on bioinputs, a proposal that allows reducing bureaucracy, without, in any way, making the regulation of these inputs precarious, maintaining due inspection of all competent bodies, such as Anvisa, Ibama and the Public Prosecutor’s Office, can present efficient results to the population”, concludes the note.