The relationships between the use of pesticides with congenital malformations in Brazil

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between the use of pesticides and the incidence of congenital malformations in live births by Brazilian regions between 2009 and 2016. Methods: Retrospective longitudinal time series study, using SINASC data on births with and without malformations, along with the annual sales of agrochemicals in the five regions of Brazil through reports drawn from IBAMA. The percentage variation rates of each year that pesticides were used and live births without and with malformations for the morbidity rate were calculated. For the analysis, we considered the annual increases of both malformations and the increase of sales of pesticides occurred during the respective eight years. Results: There was an increase of 83.55% in the sale of pesticides and 23.76% in the increase of cases of malformations in the years covered in the study  at national level. In the analysis performed by regions, the congenital malformations affected the live births of the Southeast Region (806.20%), followed by the Northeast Region (774.96%). The sales of agrochemicals increased by 318.05% in the North Region, followed by the Central-West Region with a 128.03% increase. Conclusion: It can be observed that there is a tendency toward an association between increased exposure to pesticides in Brazil and congenital malformation in the live births.