Occupational health control in workers exposed to pesticides in flower production: Possibilities of NR-31 to guarantee the fundamental right to health

Abstract

The case study aims to analyze the capacity of the occupational health medical control prescribed in NR-31 to guarantee workers' health about exposure to pesticides in rural flower-producing establishments. The method adopted was a case study combined with the inductive method and bibliographical research. The aim was to analyze how the labor inspection can ensure compliance with legal provisions and international conventions by requiring adequate occupational medical control in the case of exposure to pesticides. The results of this study show that the requirements of NR-31 are insufficient and qualitatively inferior to those of NR-7, and that this asymmetry is in line with a persistent Brazilian historical tradition of multiple forms of violence against rural workers that dates to colonization. Reading labor legislation in the light of Human Rights and the Fundamental Rights of the 1988 Constitution, however, may allow this paradigm to be broken and the foundations of NR-7 to be used as a minimum level in health management in rural activities, to guarantee the fundamental right to workers' health.