# Health, Work, Invisibilities and Collective Resistance in an Asbestos-Exposed Territory in the Pedro Leopoldo Region, (MG), Brazil

## TL;DR

This study highlights an ongoing asbestos-related health crisis in Brazil, showing how environmental injustice and institutional neglect affect vulnerable communities, and emphasizes the need for stronger public health policies and community resistance.

## Contribution

The study provides new qualitative evidence on the persistent asbestos-related health crisis in Brazil, emphasizing social injustice and the role of collective resistance in advocating for public health reforms.

## Key findings

- Asbestos-related diseases persist in Pedro Leopoldo despite a national ban, due to environmental injustice and institutional underreporting.
- Gender inequities and intergenerational contamination risks are significant issues in asbestos-exposed communities.
- Community resistance, led by ABREA/MG, is crucial for improving health recognition and policy reform.

## Abstract

Public Health Relevance—How does this work relate to a public health issue?
This study reveals a silent, persistent, and structurally invisibilized epidemic of asbestos-related diseases in Pedro Leopoldo (MG), Brazil, marked by decades of environmental injustice, state omission, and institutional underreporting, particularly among historically vulnerable populations.It demonstrates that occupational, domestic, and environmental exposures continue to affect the community even after the national asbestos ban, exposing a neglected sanitary and environmental liability and reinforcing the urgency of protective public health policies and surveillance actions.

This study reveals a silent, persistent, and structurally invisibilized epidemic of asbestos-related diseases in Pedro Leopoldo (MG), Brazil, marked by decades of environmental injustice, state omission, and institutional underreporting, particularly among historically vulnerable populations.

It demonstrates that occupational, domestic, and environmental exposures continue to affect the community even after the national asbestos ban, exposing a neglected sanitary and environmental liability and reinforcing the urgency of protective public health policies and surveillance actions.

Public Health Significance—Why is this work significant to public health?
The findings highlight gender inequities, intergenerational contamination risks, and profound diagnostic invisibility, providing unprecedented evidence on the health of asbestos-exposed Brazilian populations, such as those in Pedro Leopoldo/MG.The research offers robust qualitative evidence to strengthen health surveillance, improve the recognition of asbestos-related diseases, and guide equitable public policies in territories historically marked by intensive use and consumption of the mineral.

The findings highlight gender inequities, intergenerational contamination risks, and profound diagnostic invisibility, providing unprecedented evidence on the health of asbestos-exposed Brazilian populations, such as those in Pedro Leopoldo/MG.

The research offers robust qualitative evidence to strengthen health surveillance, improve the recognition of asbestos-related diseases, and guide equitable public policies in territories historically marked by intensive use and consumption of the mineral.

Public Health Implications—What are the key implications for practitioners, policymakers and/or researchers?
The study underscores the need for integrated epidemiological surveillance, historical reparation policies, and the development of tailored care pathways for asbestos-exposed populations within the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS).It highlights the central role of exposed workers and their collective organization as a movement of resistance, particularly through the Brazilian Association of Asbestos-Exposed Workers of Minas Gerais (ABREA/MG), in confronting necropolitical invisibility, expanding access to care, and contributing to more just, territorially grounded, and community-responsive public health actions.

The study underscores the need for integrated epidemiological surveillance, historical reparation policies, and the development of tailored care pathways for asbestos-exposed populations within the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS).

It highlights the central role of exposed workers and their collective organization as a movement of resistance, particularly through the Brazilian Association of Asbestos-Exposed Workers of Minas Gerais (ABREA/MG), in confronting necropolitical invisibility, expanding access to care, and contributing to more just, territorially grounded, and community-responsive public health actions.

Asbestos, a group 1 carcinogen, has generated a serious health and environmental liability in Pedro Leopoldo/MG, Brazil, even after its national ban in 2017. This study aims to analyze the silent epidemic of asbestos-related diseases (ARDs) through the lens of social injustice. We used a qualitative, socio-historical, and clinical approach within the framework of an Expanded Research Community (ERC), based on ergology, with content analysis of interviews with workers and institutional documents. The evidence reveals a pattern of institutional silencing and omission, marked by corporate fraud, denial of risk, and medical underreporting, perpetuating occupational, domestic, and environmental exposure. In response, the Brazilian Association of Asbestos-Exposed Individuals of Minas Gerais (ABREA/MG) emerged as a central actor in the struggle for recognition and justice. It is concluded that overcoming this injustice requires structured public policies of recognition, integrated surveillance, historical reparation, and strengthening of the SUS (Unified Health System), with collective resistance being fundamental to transforming suffering into memory and social demands.