Health risks due to pre-harvesting sugarcane burning in São Paulo State, Brazil

• Published in: Revista brasileira de epidemiologia Vol. 18; no. 3; pp. 691 - 701
• Main Authors: Paraiso, Maria Leticia de Souza, Gouveia, Nelson
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brazil Associação Brasileira de Saúde Coletiva 01-09-2015; Associação Brasileira de Pós-Graduação em Saúde Coletiva
• Subjects: Air Pollution; Bayes Theorem; Brazil; Climate; Doenças respiratórias; Fatores de risco; Fires; Humans; Impacto ambiental; Indicadores de morbidade e mortalidade; Poluição do ar; PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH; Risk Factors; Saccharum; Sistemas de informação geográfica; Socioeconomic Factors; Indicadores de morbidade e mortalidade; Environmental impact/analysis; Sistemas de informação geográfica; Doenças respiratórias; Air pollution/adverse effects; Indicators of morbidity and mortality; Impacto ambiental; Geographical information systems; Fatores de risco; Poluição do ar; Respiratory tract diseases/epidemiology; Risk factors
• ISSN: 1415-790X; 1980-5497; 1980-5497; 1415-790X
• DOI: 10.1590/1980-5497201500030014

After 2003, a new period of expansion of the sugarcane culture began in Brazil. Pre-harvesting burning of sugarcane straw is an agricultural practice that, despite the nuisance for the population and pollution generated, still persisted in over 70% of the municipalities of São Paulo State in 2010. In order to study the distribution of this risk factor, an ecological epidemiological study was conducted associating the rates of deaths and hospital admissions for respiratory diseases, for each municipality in the State, with the exposure to the pre-harvesting burning of sugarcane straw. A Bayesian multivariate regression model, controlled for the possible effects of socioeconomic and climate (temperature, humidity, and rainfall) variations, has been used. The effect on health was measured by the standardized mortality and morbidity ratio. The measures of exposure to the pre-harvesting burning used were: percentage of the area of sugarcane harvested with burning, average levels of aerosol, and number of outbreaks of burning. The autocorrelation between data was controlled using a neighborhood matrix. It was observed that the increase in the number of outbreaks of burning was significantly associated with higher rates of hospital admissions for respiratory disease in children under five years old. Pre-harvesting burning of sugarcane effectively imposes risk to population health and therefore it should be eliminated.