National Institute for Integrated Analysis of Environmental Risk

Abstract

Environmental health is one of the areas where there is more distance between knowledge and action. There is a considerable amount of evidences relating adverse health outcomes and pollution, but effective actions and public policies confront with economical needs, necessity of creating jobs and conflicts among involved actors. The gap between knowledge and effective actions is wider in developing countries, where the necessity of economical growth is high and risk assessment and perception is less developed. The research team involved in the present proposal believes that the one of the weakest links in the chain of events of economical development is the health impact of some economical decisions in terms of energy options and their sustainability. Because Brazil still has large pristine areas in its territory, environmental research is mostly focused on forests or natural ecosystems, and the human consequences of environmental impacts are somewhat placed in the backstage. However, we must face two important scenarios. First, Brazilian Government moved towards the implementation of biofuels as part of its strategy of energy self-sufficiency. This movement was taken before consistent analyses of the health consequences, expressed either in terms of production and emissions. Second, the economical growth of Brazil expanded enormously the areas potentially impacted by pollution, produced by agriculture, industries, forest fires, automotive emissions and electric generation. Considering the size of Brazilian territory and the uneven distribution of technical and academic capacity to conduct risk assessment studies across the country, it is mandatory to expand research, in terms of quantity, quality and distribution. In other words, good science, risk assessment and economical valuation are the tools necessary to avoid errors inherent to uncontrolled economical growth. What are the main difficulties to be surpassed? First, the variety of knowledge necessary to encompass the main aspects of the energy transition of Brazil: the comparative risk represented by the different types of biofuels and the new risks represented by expansion of pollution frontiers to areas devoid of technological sufficiency. This point implies in the development of competent epidemiological, clinical and toxicological studies Second, the wide spectrum of knowledge necessary to evaluate the risk imposed by the new energy sources and frontiers of pollution points towards the necessity of the creation of research networks that put together the necessary groups of expertise. Finally, it is mandatory to establish a program of education, from elementary school to post-graduation, to increase the participation of environmental health in Brazilian research agenda. These three aspects are the targets of the present proposal. Now, specific points will be discussed. Research Studies on environmental health may be considered from different perspectives. One is that physiological changes and diseases caused by the exposure to subtle environmental changes are a unique opportunity to understand human biology. How exposure to ambient particles influences homeostasis? In what extent chronic exposure to air contaminants deviates people from normal aging? Does exposure to ambient levels of air pollution increases the risk of diseases in adulthood? What are the genetic and epigenetic factors that determined vulnerability to air pollution? These are relevant questions and need to be addressed, either in terms of actual energy and transportation options, but also considering the use of new energy alternatives. This project presents a series of research proposals in highly qualified epidemiological, clinical and toxicological research that will provide useful information on how inhaled toxicants interfere with human health. Other possibility is to focus on the comparative effects of the new fuel alternatives in terms of health impact. It is interesting, but engineers use the expression life cycle of fuels but very seldom take into consideration their impact on human life. At least in Brazil, the adoption of new fuels was ruled by economical factors. When ethanol was introduced in the market as automotive fuel, reasons were economic?... (AU)