Sintomas neurológicos agudos relacionados à exposição ao petróleo em pescadores artesanais da Bahia

Abstract

Introduction: The oil spill off the Brazilian coast in 2019 is considered the most extensive environmental disaster in Brazilian history. The state of Bahia was fourth in the amount of waste collected and the first with the highest number of marine protection areas affected. The ecosystem effects can last for decades, in addition, the spill severely affected artisanal fishing communities, as economic, subsistence and cultural activities were harmed and the repercussions of the spill intensified with the Covid-19 pandemic. Exposure to petroleum components may be associated with acute neurological symptoms and little is known about the relationship of such symptoms among fishermen who were involved in oil removal activities and fishing activities. Objective: To investigate acute neurological symptoms related to exposure to oil in artisanal fishermen living in locations affected by the spill in the state of Bahia. Method: A scoping review was carried out to identify the characteristics of epidemiological studies that investigate acute health symptoms in people exposed to oil spills and a cross-sectional epidemiological study was carried out with data from 959 artisanal fishermen residing in affected marine protected areas due to the oil spill off the coast of Bahia. Exposure to oil was assessed using self-reported metrics, used to classify artisanal fishermen according to the degree of exposure, for this, Cluster Analysis was used with the non hierarchical k-Modas technique. The presence of neurological symptoms 1 to 3 months after the onset of the spill was considered as a dependent variable. To model this variable, a logistic regression model was used and the delta method was applied to obtain prevalence ratios. Results: Two articles were carried out, article 1 was the scoping review in which 14 studies were selected, conducted between the years 1993 and 2022, the majority of which presented oil tankers as the source of spillage and headache was the most common symptom. frequent. In article 2, the majority of respondents were female (n = 536; 55.89%), mixed race (n = 493; 51.41%), with complete/incomplete primary education (323; 33.79%), residents of RESEX Canavieiras (532; 55.50%) and considered fishing/shellfishing as their main job (912; 95.10%). The mean age of the participants was 42.64 (standard deviation of 10.64). The most common neurological symptom was “severe headache or migraine” (368; 38.37%). The prevalence of neurological symptoms in the medium and high exposure groups, during fishing/shellfishing, was 1.7 and 3.3 times, respectively and the exposure during removal was 2 and 2.5 times for the medium and high groups, respectively. Conclusion: The review provided a comprehensive overview of epidemiological studies investigating acute health symptoms in individuals exposed to oil spills and the results provide a solid foundation to guide future research. It was possible to observe that participating in removal and fishing activities during the spill period increased the prevalence of neurological symptoms, in the period 1 to 3 months after the spill.