Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency

Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency
Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária
Agency overview
Formed26 January 1999; 25 years ago (1999-01-26)
JurisdictionFederative Republic of Brazil
HeadquartersBrasília, Brazil
Employees2206[1]
Annual budgetR$ 3.261.331.118.216,00 (2019) [2]
Agency executive
  • Antonio Barra Torres[3], President-Director
Websitehttps://www.gov.br/anvisa/

The Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (Portuguese: Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária, Anvisa, literally National Health Surveillance Agency) is a regulatory body of the Brazilian government, created in 1999 during President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's term of office. It is responsible for the regulation and approval of pharmaceutical drugs, sanitary standards and regulation of the food industry.

The agency bills itself as "an independently administered, financially autonomous" regulatory body. It is administered by a five-member collegiate board of directors,[4] who oversee five thematic directorates, assisted by a five-tier oversight structure.[5] Since September 2018 the agency is headed by Antonio Barra Torres.[3]

Pesticide approvals and monitoring

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Brazil is the world's largest consumer of pesticides.[6][7] They are primarily used in the production of soy and corn.[6] The number of approved pesticides increased "rapidly" between 2015 and 2019.[7] Tereza Cristina, the agriculture minister, noted that "there is no general liberation" of new pesticide registrations and no reason for concern when pesticides are used as instructed.[7]

The agency also runs a program for checking pesticide levels in food crops found in supermarkets. However, in May 2022, the agency reached a mark of 3 years without publishing its results, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason. The agency also refused to publish partial results from the last tests performed in 2018 and 2019.[8]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Detalhamento dos Servidores Públicos por Órgão – Portal da transparência". www.portaldatransparencia.gov.br. Retrieved Jan 4, 2021.
  2. ^ "Orçamento da despesa – Portal da transparência". www.portaldatransparencia.gov.br. Retrieved Jan 4, 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Senado aprova indicação de Antonio Barra Torres para diretor da Anvisa". Idec (in Portuguese). July 15, 2019. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  4. ^ "Sanitary Surveillance's official website in English". Archived from the original on 2013-02-16.
  5. ^ "ORGANOGRAMA". ANVISA. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
  6. ^ a b Jenny Gonzales (February 20, 2018). "Brazil's fundamental pesticide law under attack". Mongabay. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
  7. ^ a b c Sue Bradford, Thais Borges (May 3, 2019). "Brazil's Bolsonaro Green-Lights 150+ Pesticides This Year". EcoWatch. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
  8. ^ "Anvisa completa três anos sem divulgar análise da presença de agrotóxicos em alimentos" [Anvisa reaches three years without publishing analyses on the presence of pesticides in food]. G1 (in Brazilian Portuguese). 24 May 2022. Retrieved 2022-05-24.