Pictures from a region: impact of the sugarcane industry, health indicators and managers’ perception

Abstract

This article analyzes health indicators in the municipalities of the São José do Rio Preto region (state of São Paulo, Brazil) and the demand of the population according to the managers regarding the sugar cane expansion process. Ten municipalities in the region that have sugar cane mills and 10 other municipalities with the same number of inhabitants, but without the presence of plants, were selected. Data were collected through interviews and Ministry of Health databases. It was observed that, regardless of the presence of sugar and alcohol plants, there was an improvement in health indicators. However, to the interviewed managers, despite there being plants or not, the presence of migrants to cut sugarcane worsened health indicators. Therefore, it was observed that the presence of plants in the municipalities did not interfere in health indicators, but managers perceived a drop in health quality in the municipality.