The Brazilian Federal Law of Pesticides (7.802/1989): the Protagonism of the Environmental Movement from Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

This paper gives a historical review of environmentalist movement importance in Rio Grande do Sul State, concerning the creation of the first pesticide state law in 1982. The Rio Grande do Sul Association of Environmental Protection, under Lutzenberger’s leadership, had a preponderant role on the agenda setting against pesticide use in RS. The legislation allowed a stricter control in the approval and use of pesticides through the introduction of important legal devices: the authorization of pesticides conditioned to their former approval in the countries of origin, the toxicological classification of pesticides, the civil organizations’ rights to contesting registrations of products that may cause risk to human health, and the request of agronomic prescription. The approval and implementation of the state law was subject to the intense resistance from the pesticide industry, which contested its constitutionality at the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court. The mobilization of organized groups of civil society contributed to the dissemination of this social control device to other federation states. The experience acquired by some members of the environmentalist movement in Rio Grande do Sul State had a decisive influence on the format of the Pesticide Federal Law 7.802/1989. Such an experience, in association with a favorable historical moment for the inclusion of environmental issues in the federal government political agenda, was determinant to the Brazilian advance in the regulation of harmful substances.