A extração do Caulim no município de Equador-RN: implicações ambientais e sociais

Abstract

The issues surrounding the brazilian semi-arid region go far beyond the climatic and environmental issues of the region, covering the economic and social spheres as well. However, this region presents the greatest vulnerability to the effects of desertification in Brazil, aggravated by the different forms of land use and occupation. Mining is one of them, since it triggers a range of negative impacts on the environment and society, among these environmental impacts are the alteration of vegetation, intensification of erosive processes, contamination of soil, water and air; In the social sphere, attention is paid to the insalubrity of the activities, both of those directly involved, as well as of the population surrounding the mining areas. In Rio Grande do Norte, Seridó is the region most susceptible to the effects of desertification by climatic factors, which has been aggravated by the presence of mining companies from various segments. The municipality of Equador/RN has the largest producing pole of Caulim do RN. This ore is extremely versatile in the industry and can be used from the manufacture of white ceramics to paints. However, the extraction in this municipality occurs in a disorderly way, without complying with the precepts of sustainable development. A re-reading of the situation from the use of more modern technologies of environmental study, such as remote sensing, motivated the present study and, for this, it was chosen as research objectives: i) to evaluate the canopy vegetation canopy behavior in two distinct years, considering the water stress for each period analyzed; ii) to verify the extent of deforestation caused by the mineral extraction of kaolin in the slopes and tops of the local elevations and the degradation resulting from the Extractive activity; and, iii) considering the insalubrity of the activity, to analyze if the dispersion pattern of the fine particulate material from the extraction processes to the beneficiation process has affected the health of the urban population. In order to reach the proposed objectives, Tasseled Cap (TC) transformations were applied to two scenes of the 215.065 orbit, one of 09/21/2001 (ETM + / LANDSAT 7) and the other of 13/09/2016 (OLI / LANDSAT 8) in order to analyze the greenness and brightness components of the CT and thus verify the areas of photosynthetically active vegetation, their extensions at different times, the areas of extraction and concentration of particulate matter from kaolin and the problems arising from the extraction of the ore. The greenhouse TC for the year 2001 ranged from -0.168 to 0.178, the closer to 0.5 indicates greater photosynthetic activity of the vegetation. For OLI / LANDSAT 8 scene, from 2016, the values vary from -0.178 to 0.280, denoting greater photosynthetic activity, although in terms of areal extension its occurrence is much smaller. Regarding the TC gloss, the results show the concentration variation of this type of particulate material in the soil. In the year 2001, the values obtained vary from 0.113 to 0.867, and the closer to 1, the greater the presence of particulate matter in the soil from the mining activity and exposed soil. In the image of 2016, the value varies from 0.052 to 1.391, demonstrating a percentage increase of the particulate material in the terrain. Subsequently, cases of respiratory diseases (Bronchopneumonia, Bronchitis, Asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Acute Respiratory Insufficiency, Pneumonia, Pneumoconiosis, Silicosis, Pulmonary Tumor, Pulmonary Edema and Pulmonary Neoplasia) were enrolled in the Integrated Maternal and Child Unit of Equador (UMIIE) in the period from 2001 to 2015 to verify which of these diseases are most frequent in the municipality. The data associated to these diseases were: Patient's age, neighborhood residing, and month admitted to the hospital. These data were organized in spreadsheets and underwent descriptive analysis. Pneumonia was the most commonly diagnosed (134 cases), followed by bronchopneumonia (107) and asthma (59). Silicosis presented only two cases recorded in the study period and the pneumoconiosis diagnosis presented three cases. Children between 0 and 5 years old are the most affected by the diagnoses, since factors such as low birth weight, malnutrition, lack or short duration of breastfeeding, absence of immunization, contamination of domestic air and low family income, to which the agglomeration of people is associated, makes the child even more susceptible to these diseases. Finally, geostatistical analysis was used to predict which districts in the municipality of Equador-RN are more likely to develop respiratory diseases based on wind and health data from the municipality between 2001 and 2016. The geostatistical analysis followed the following steps: primary analysis of the data, generation of experimental semivariogram, selection and adjustment of the appropriate model, surface generation and cross validation. The results obtained for the geostatistical analysis allowed us to infer that there is a greater probability of occurrence of respiratory diseases in the "Alto da Bela Vista" and "Prefeito José Marcelino de Oliveira" districts, areas to the north and center of the municipal headquarters of Equador, in exchange for the portion periphery of this municipal seat, where the probability of occurrence is substantially lower. It is inferred that the probability of occurrence of respiratory diseases in these districts was higher due to the orographic accelerations and interactions between the atmospheric displacement and the mountain formations suffered by the easterly winds and its proximity to the municipality of Junco do Seridó-PB, which presents an extractive activity of Kaolin still greater than Equador.