Suicide in the countryside: the silent mental health crisis caused by pesticides

When pesticides are discussed, the public's mind usually turns to cancer, but Larissa Bombardi's research exposes an invisible and equally devastating crisis: the direct impact of pesticide exposure on the mental health of the rural population.

The opinion piece co-authored by the researcher in Folha de S.Paulo treats the subject as a "silent emergency" in Brazil, with the potential to cause serious neuropsychiatric illnesses, including cognitive and motor dysfunctions. The chronic effects of exposure to certain pesticides, such as organophosphates, not only lead to increased anxiety and depression, but are dramatically associated with the high rates of suicide among male and female farmers.

This tragedy is quantified in the Atlas data: between 2007 and 2014, Brazil officially recorded 1,186 deaths from poisoning by agricultural pesticides, which amounts to one death every two and a half days. In addition, in states such as Paraná, São Paulo, and Minas Gerais, around 40% of reported poisonings were classified as suicide attempts.

These numbers show that the problem goes beyond the production of commodities; it strikes at dignity and the fundamental right to life. To speak of pesticides, as Bombardi points out, is to speak of human rights and of a national project that chose to sacrifice the health of its most vulnerable population in the name of a chemically dependent agricultural model. The urgent struggle is for this invisible violence to be recognized and confronted as a national public health crisis.