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BRASILIA – Pollution risks linked to a chemical that the Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, determined to be launched over the fire areas in the Veadeiros Plateau (GO) this week are so controversial that the Ibama makes serious alerts about its use.
THE Status had access to a technical note made by Ibama’s Coordination for the Environmental Assessment of Hazardous Substances and Products, in July 2018. In this document, Ibama technicians analyzed the product that was launched in the region, without yet having the environmental regulation suitable in Brazil. This chemical, which mixes with water and is released by airplanes on vegetation, has the property of increasing fire retention capacity. The technicians are inflexible when recommending “the suspension of the consumption of water, fishing, hunting and consumption of fruits and vegetables in the region exposed to the product for a period of 40 days”.
This period is stipulated, according to the note, because the product released in the forest takes at least 28 days to degrade between 80% and 90% of its material. The compound used, known as a fire retardant, was Fire Limit FL-02.
The report sent the questions to Ibama, the Environment Ministry and Ricardo Salles. There was no positioning until the publication of this text. This week, Salles was the target of criticism and protests from residents of the region. The minister posted images on his social media with the product launched in the region and flew over Chapada, declaring on Sunday that the fire had ended in the region.
Ibama’s technical area recommended that the application of this product be carried out outside the Permanent Preservation Areas (APP), such as the riverbanks. Chapada dos Veadeiros is a region covered by protected forests, such as the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park.
The fear of contamination by the chemical led the Ministry of the Environment itself to recommend that all places where the flame retardant was applied should be georeferenced, recording the date of application, amount of product used and size of the area applied. for a period of at least six months, in order to identify any environmental damage resulting from the application of flame retardant.
In addition, the technicians say that it is necessary to carry out chemical analyzes to investigate the levels of the retardant in water, soil, sediments, fish and fruits, with collections made within 30 days of applying the product. The analysis indicates that these are basic measures to adopt the alternative, “considering the lack of legal objection that prevents the use of the product, we recommend the restricted use of nitrogen-based flame retardant”.
In the technical note, Ibama also points out that the type of product used is not part of the retardant groups of greatest environmental and toxicological concern, but warns that the consequences of this use must still be better studied, hence the need for so many precautions .
“The fact that no studies have been found with nitrogen flame retardants (which is the type used in Chapada) does not imply that they do not present ecotoxicological risks. As they are newer formulations, perhaps there has not yet been enough time to evaluate the environmental impacts of these substances, ”says Ibama.
Asked about the matter, the Goiás government, through the State Secretariat for the Environment and Sustainable Development (Semad), reported that “there are no regulations on the referred chemical in Goiás; that he was not consulted about its use; and that its use is not authorized within the Pouso Alto Environmental Protection Area, which is administered by the Goiás government ”.
In the first 11 days of October, the number of fire outbreaks in the Closed, where Chapada dos Veadeiros is located, already exceeds all the burns observed in the biome in October 2019. 9,884 outbreaks have already been registered by the Inpe Program between the 1st and 11th of this month, compared to the 8,356 outbreaks observed in Days October of last year. The biome begins to increase the season of fires that devastate the Amazon and the Pantanal.
This Tuesday the 13th, Salles has a public hearing in the Senate, to discuss the government’s actions to contain the fires in the Marshland, the worst on the historical record. The hearing was proposed by the Temporary External Commission that analyzes the fires in the Pantanal and verifies if the federal government has taken the opportune actions to solve the problems.
Use in other countries
Ibama cites in the analysis that a Spanish company, supplier of the FL-02 product, stated that the retardant had already been used in firefighting actions in Portugal and Spain and that the use permit would have been granted based on the results of laboratory tests. Already done. “However, there was no government document issued by any country that granted authorization for use or a license issued by an environmental agency,” the technicians reflect.
The product used in Brazil is a concentrated liquid that must be diluted with water before application. Salles said that its effect multiplies five times the combat carried out with pure water. However, there is no defined regulation and evaluation system for this type of chemical product, although the retardant was classified by Ibama, based on the data presented, as “little toxic and little persistent”.
Resignation
Just a month ago at the head of Ibama’s National Center for the Prevention and Fight of Forest Fires (Prevfogo), José Carlos Mendes de Morais requested his resignation last Friday the 9. Ibama did not detail the reasons for his departure. In a message sent to co-workers, Morais only stated that he left due to “force majeure.”
In a note sent to friends at work, Morais thanked those who “supported me in this difficult but important mission of promoting the fight against forest fires that ravage various regions of the country.”
“Sure that we will continue in this fight to contribute to the preservation of the environment and sustainable development, I leave my respect and consideration to all firefighters and I hope to continue contributing, in another way, to the Specialized Center for Prevention and Fight against Forest Fires” , wrote.
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