Brazil’s pesticide risk and degrating working conditions
While we continue to extract and wrangle multiple datasets, we’re excited to share the first infographic in our new series exploring the intersection of Climate change, Decent Work, and Workers’ Health.
40% of Brazil’s population resides in areas with high pesticide risk, where agricultural workers and rural communities are most significantly exposed, having frequent and direct contact with agrochemicals.
Under degrading working conditions —defined as analogous to forced labour under Article 149 of the Brazilian Criminal Code— the risks of agrochemical poisoning and chronic illness rise significantly. Labour inspections have uncovered violations, including Inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure, degrading living conditions, excessive and illegal overtime, and arbitrary wage deductions, as the most frequent incidents.
These factors violate workers’ rights and increase the chances of acute poisoning and chronic diseases, since they commonly undermine access to proper decontamination facilities and safety measures. One clear example is highlighted in the investigative report Enslaved in Ethanol, which illustrates how poisoning risks from agrochemical use and labour exploitation are tightly interconnected.
We will soon enable an interactive version and unpack these critical connections among Climate Change, Decent Work, and Workers’ Health.
Download
- [Interactive version] (coming soon)
- Download high resolution datavis
- [Download Tableau worksheet] (coming soon)
- [Look inside the code to collect data] (coming soon)