Pesticide use represents an important One Health challenge due to its interconnected effects on human health, environmental quality, and food production systems. This study evaluated occupational exposure to pesticides and multidimensional risk perception among family onion farmers in southern Brazil. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 89 farmers from São José do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, using a structured questionnaire addressing sociodemographic characteristics, occupational practices, pesticide use, personal protective equipment (PPE), health conditions, and perceptions of risks related to environmental contamination, human and animal health, food quality, and occupational exposure. Most participants were male (75.3%), older than 40 years (78.6%), and reported year-round agricultural activity (85.4%). Herbicides were the most frequently used pesticides, and several fungicides and insecticides were applied at doses exceeding the recommended levels. Although environmental risk perception was relatively high, particularly regarding water contamination, adherence to PPE remained low, with 83.1% reporting inadequate use. Musculoskeletal, dermatological, and neuropsychological symptoms were commonly reported. Younger farmers demonstrated higher environmental risk perception, while married individuals and those with prolonged occupational exposure generally showed lower perception levels. Conversely, chronic conditions such as pulmonar and cardiovascular diseases, and cancer were associated with increased risk perception. The findings suggest that repeated occupational exposure may contribute to the normalization of hazardous practices, reducing awareness of pesticide-related risks. From a One Health perspective, the results highlight the need for integrated interventions involving occupational health surveillance, environmental monitoring, health education, and the promotion of safer and more sustainable agricultural practices in rural communities.
Vitória Machado da Silva, Júlia Oliveira Penteado, R. de Lima Brum et al.· Journal of Environmental Sci...· 0 citations
Brazil presents a distinctive convergence of continental-scale climatic diversity, extensive urbanization, large-scale biomass burning, rapid land-use change, persistent air-quality monitoring gaps, and deep social inequalities, producing highly heterogeneous and compound environmental health risks. In this context, treating air pollution and climate change as parallel environmental crises obscures their structural interconnections through shared emission sources, mutually reinforcing exposure pathways, and overlapping health and social consequences. In this narrative review, we critically synthesize scientific and institutional lines of evidence and argue that air pollution and climate risks can be more effectively addressed in Brazil through a single strategic agenda for science, public health, and governance. We first discuss why these challenges cannot be managed in isolation, emphasizing the effects of heat, drought, stagnation events, biomass burning, and extreme weather on pollutant formation, dispersion, and health burden. We then examine Brazil as a critical case where recent regulatory advances coexist with structural limitations in monitoring, data integration, and territorial coverage. Based on this diagnosis, we propose an integrated national agenda organized around five mutually reinforcing priorities: monitoring through hybrid networks; predictive science through climate-informed modeling and early warning; public health through the convergence of epidemiology, toxicology, and mechanistic research; equity-oriented research and action through the explicit incorporation of vulnerability, inequality, and climate justice; and policy appraisal through the assessment of disease burden, economic costs, mitigation co-benefits, and trade-offs. We further discuss the governance mechanisms needed to connect these priorities and translate evidence into coordinated action and adaptive public policies. We also argue that the Amazon should be approached not as an isolated ecological exception but as a central component of a broader Brazilian and Global South discussion on environmental health, land-use change, and climate justice. In this scenario, Brazil has the scientific capacity and regulatory momentum to become a reference in the integrated management of air pollution and climate risks, but this will depend on replacing fragmented approaches with a coordinated framework capable of linking exposure, mechanism, burden, inequality, and action.
R. Tavella, F. R. de Moura, A. da Silva Bonifácio et al.· Atmosphere· 0 citations
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