A Importância dos centros de informação e assistência toxicologica e sua contribuiçãona sua minimização dos agravos à saúde e ao meio ambiente no Brasil

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2006

RESUMO

According to estimates, thousands of products that are potentially hazardous to human health and environmental homeostasis 2 (medicines, cleaning products, pesticides, cosmetics, and other chemical and biological agents) are now on the market, and that dozens more enter the market every year. Based on an analysis of documents and the pertinent legislation, the current study aims to discuss the importance of Brazils Centers for Toxicological Information and Assistance (CIATs) for minimizing the harm to health and the environment caused by such products. The incidence of intoxications and poisonings in Brazil and the precarious approach to this issue in the countrys university curricula highlight the need to expand and systematize the work of the CIATs. Timely access to information on intoxication and poisoning is crucial for establishing efficacious and effective strategies for epidemiological and health surveillance. Taking as its reference the organizational dimensions of the CIATs in relation to a formally organized NETWORK, the study highlights the importance of the public sector as the entity responsible for evaluating post-marketing risk of approved products containing chemical and biological substances and their possible adverse effects on the population and the environment. The data currently recorded in the National Toxicological and Pharmacological Data System (SINITOX) and the National System for Reportable Diseases (SINAN) do not cover all the cases of intoxications in Brazil, either because the data collected by the CIATs are not necessarily reported or are insufficient, or because the reporting is not effectively enforced. To minimize harm to health and environmental assets due to underreporting, the National Network for Toxicological Information and Assistance (RENACIAT) has emerged as a proposal for consolidating the CIATs through a more comprehensive information and documentation system in Toxicology and Pharmacology with a nationwide scope, capable of supporting public health authorities and professionals and the general population with timely and comprehensive toxicological data. Key words: Intoxications; Health; Environment; RENACIAT; Surveillance 2 Homeostasis Homeostasis is the maintenance of internal equilibrium in a biological system (cell, organism, ecosystem) through controlled responses to alterations that can originate inside or outside the system. It is a set of phenomena taking place and interfering in ecosystems, or even in certain organisms, correcting deviations, eliminating excesses, controlling antagonistic forces, sometimes introducing new factors, always seeking to maintain the whole in equilibrium and in correct and normal functioning. Homeostatic mechanisms are the ecosystems feedbacks. Homeostasis is also a process of self-regulation by which biological systems like cells and organisms work to maintain the ecosystems stability by the adjustment of the conditions needed for optimum survival (Carvalho, 1981). The more complex the ecosystems, the greater the tendency towards stability, that is, an increasing independence in relation to outside disturbances. This tendency towards stability is called homeostasis (Dajoz, 1973). (Homeo = equal; stasis = state) is the term used to mean the tendency of biological systems to resist changes and to remain in a state of equilibrium (Odum, 1972). [homeostasis is the] tendency of biological systems to resist alterations and remain in a state of dynamic equilibrium (Hurtubia, 1980). (IBGE, 1996).

ASSUNTO(S)

intoxicações outros renaciat saúde meio ambiente vigilância

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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