Brazil prosecutor applied for carbendazim suspensions

The Brazilian public prosecutor's office (MPF) recently filed a legal suit in court to suspend the registrations of carbendazim-based fungicide products in Brazil. According to MPF, the prohibition should be valid until ANVISA (Sanitary National Agency) completes the process of reevaluating the toxicity of the active principle, "considered harmful to human health by several scientific studies."
 
The carbendazim is registered at the Brazilian Department of Agriculture for spraying in crops such as citrus, cotton, beans, soybeans and wheat, as well as seed treatment for cotton, beans, corn and soybeans. In the case of citrus crops, the use of the product for controlling early black spot was suspended in the beginning of last year by the Citrus Planting Protection Fund (Fundecitrus), maintained by producers and industries, after the US embargo of 20 shipments of concentrated juice with carbendazim levels above the levels allowed by US authorities.
 
MPF, defending the suspension of carbendazim, argues that the fungicide is banned in the United States and it is part of the substances review in European Union. " In Braizl, the last evaluation on the active ingredient was performed by ANVISA in 2002. Since then, hundreds of new research showed risks in intaking the product, which can cause damage to the endocrine and reproductive systems, besides the liver," says MPF, stating that the use of carbendazim is associated, for example, with skin diseases, liver problems, decreased sperm production, infertility, birth defects, hormonal disorders and cancer.    
 
According to the MPF, Anvisa itself recognizes the need to reconsider the risks of this substance, but it said it will only make the analysis after completing the reevaluation of 14 other active ingredients, according to Resolution RDC 10/2008, however there is no set date for completing the assignments. "The inertia of the autarchy puts at risk the health of the population," say some prosecutors, who advocate the precautionary principle. "To ensure that health is effectively safeguarded, it should be applied by the State in accordance with their capabilities, preventive measures where there are serious or irreversible threats. It shall not be used to the lack of full scientific certainty as a reason for postponing effective measures,"says the prosecutor Anselmo Henrique Cordeiro Lopes .