Environmental health and development in legal amazon: socio-economic, environmental and sanitary indicators, challenges and perspectives

Abstract

This article aimed to discuss the processes of deter mining the environmental situation in the states that are part of the Brazilian Legal Amazon, based on the analysis of socio-economic, environmental and sanitary indicators. The indicators showed a very dynamic and heterogeneous region, with a growing population mostly concentrated in urban areas, combining economic growth and environ mental degradation associated with a rapid and precarious urbanization process, and with deve lopment projects focused on the exploitation of natural resources. The result is a complex picture of health problems, with the presence of infectious and parasitic diseases related to severe environmental changes and poor conditions of life, caused mainly by inequalities in social and economic indicators that produce vulnerabilities and negative effects on the environmental and sanitary context.