Poisons, cures and matayuyos

Agricultural workers and knowledge about pesticides in Uruguay

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 21^st century Uruguay has been going through a sojization process that has been linked to an exponential increase in the volumes of pesticides used. Although there is evidence that exposures to these products pose a risk to human health, they remain part of the dominant technological package of this productive system. Based on the proposals of critical medical anthropology of environmental health and Latin American sociocultural epidemiology, this article discusses results obtained among workers linked to the application of pesticides in soybean production in Uruguay, for having beig characterized as a social group particularly vulnerable to exposures to these substances' effects. The results indicate that popular knowledge regarding the danger of pesticides combines body knowledge as well as expert knowledge which are appropriate and resignified in a popular pesticide hazzard clasification.