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

Abstract

ABSTRACT: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.

Sugarcane Straw Blanket Management Effects on Plant Growth, Development, and Yield in Southeastern Brazil

“…The practice of burning has increased public health and environmental concerns. Health concerns are due to increases in respiratory diseases attributed to air pollution (Cançado et al, 2006; Paraiso and Gouveia, 2015; Le Blond et al, 2017). Environmental concerns are associated with greater greenhouse gas emissions and poor working conditions associated with burning (Capaz et al, 2013; Galdos et al, 2013).…”

Do Regional Aerosols Contribute to the Riverine Export of Dissolved Black Carbon?

“…In the fire‐adapted Cerrado (savannah) biome that occupies a large portion of the interior of Brazil, the natural fire regime has been amplified by the expansion of cropland and pasture (Klink & Machado, ; Oliveira & Marquis, ; Pivello, ). The Atlantic Forest is naturally a less fire‐prone biome, but human ignition of fire for pasture maintenance and crop waste removal is a common process in the deforested parts of the region (e.g., Aguiar et al, ; Paraiso & Gouveia, ). Meanwhile, BC FFA derives from combustion of fossil fuels and biofuels in the energy, transport, industry, and residential sectors.…”

Sugarcane straw removal for bioenergy production: implications on plant and soil responses

“…Since early 2000s, sugarcane management has gradually changed from burning and manual harvesting to unburnt and mechanized harvesting system. The reasons for the elimination of burning and changing the sugarcane harvesting system are primary associated to increasing incidence of respiratory diseases caused by air pollution and environmental impact, such as the emission of greenhouse gases [3][4][5][6]. Thus, using mechanized sugarcane harvesting, large amounts of straw (~15 Mg ha-1 dry mass [7,8]) have been left in the field annually.…”

“…Traditionally, sugarcane in Brazil was harvested manually after leaf material was burned, but respiratory diseases caused by air pollution Paraiso and Gouveia, 2015;, environmental issues associated with greenhouse gas emissions and poor working conditions raised strong social concerns regarding those practices. Therefore, since the early 2000s, sugarcane harvesting has phased out burning and adopted mechanization (i.e., green sugarcane harvesting), which improves sustainability of the entire system (Pongpat et al, 2017;.…”