In the Amazon, specially in the state of Pará, the use of pesticides has been
set as a regular practice in the last 20 years and was intensified in the last decade,
through the re-configuration of agriculture in the county, with maximization of
permanent cultures and technological changes inserted in the agricultural practices and
into the labor relationships, being its predominant use, as for the Igarapé-Açu county,
the mild and high risk of intoxication, including forbidden substances in the other
countries which, under the label of “technology transfer”, have been used without the
evaluation of its impact over public health, the environment and the food chain into
which the human being takes part. It is understood that this is a public health question in
interface with the referred ones in occupational health and environmental health. The
research which has guided such paper was developed in the Cumaru branch in Igarapé-
Açu county in the state of Pará, with 20 peasants in a situation of long exposure to
pesticides. It had as a main aim to trace the morbidity profile of the focused group,
more specifically the arise of symptoms of anxiety and/or depression in the situation of
chronic intoxication, as well as to recognize their perceptions of the risks to what they
are submitted from the usage of such substances in their labor. It was out of the point
that the theoretical-conception of work, health and environment joint, understanding
health as going beyond the absence of illness or continuous well-being, entering in a
single way into each individual’s life who shares with the community events that cause
diseases, but that express in a single way through co-factor which insert into each one’s
biography, making it worse or minimizing the effects of shared risks. Labor, understood
as structuring element of identity and subjective of the individual, plenty of meanings,
culturally transformed, being a way of living and dying. Field research was performed
in two steps, being the first one to recognize the spaces and ever day practices of the
group, considering age and gender, through participative observation and informal chats
with peasants and their families in domestic and labor rooms. The second step was
performed through psychological evaluation interviews with peasants. It was evidenced
the chronic intoxication situation and the incidence of a group of symptoms, among
which there are some ones linked to anxiety or depression expressions, being these ones
named as “nervous” by the peasants. Those ones already know parts of the risks over
their health and environment, but they think of it relatively, not relating the usage of
pesticides to the presented symptoms and minimizing them, as well as the risks,
anchoring to social representatives that support them on their beliefs about labor and
health in defensive strategies shared with their partners.
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