Introduction:

Brazil expanded the pesticide market and Rio Grande do Sul stands out as the largest marketing state since 2014. The rural population, socioeconomic and environmental factors, as well as exposure to pesticides can cause prematurity and low weight at birth.

Objective:

To verify the association between the commercialization of pesticides and the occurrence of prematurity, low weight at birth and socioeconomic factors.

Methods:

Ecological study carried out, in the years 2017 and 2018, with 496 municipalities of Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. The population was made up of the live births by maternal residence and reported in the Live Births Information System. Information regarding the commercialization of pesticides was obtained from the Integrated System for Pesticide Management. The municipalities were classified into four groups of increasing order, based on marketing quartiles. Statistical analyses were carried out in the program IBM SPPS (version 21.0); considering a significance level of 5% (P < 0.05), nonparametric tests were applied, as well as variables by median and interquartile range.

Results:

There was an association between the commercialization of pesticides, municipal human development index, rural population and Gini Index (P < 0.001). Regarding the rates of prematurity and low weight at birth, no association was evidenced, despite a higher trend of medians of prematurity and low birth weight in the group with the highest commercialization (P > 0.05).

Conclusion:

Consumption of pesticides, decrease in access to education and healthcare services, as well as unsafe work settings, can contribute to the occurrence of premature and underweight newborns.

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