“Brazil: Pandemic Disproportionately Impacts Communities Affected by Corporate Pollution and Neglected by the State” 27 April 2020

...After decades of suffering the consequences of pollution and irreversible damage to their health and the environment caused by steel and coal companies, workers and communities like Piquiá de Baixo are today in a situation of particular vulnerability to the Covid-19 pandemic. The State’s historical neglect of communities in this situation not only makes them more prone to contagion, but also to suffer drastic consequences on their health, which has already been damaged by exposure to pollution.

Brazil has become the largest epicenter of Covid-19 contamination in Latin America, aggravated by the negligence of Jair Bolsonaro’s government in its management of the crisis. The authorities irresponsibly downplayed the dangers of COVID, sowing discord and increasing instability. This attitude seriously threatens the lives of the most vulnerable communities such as Piquiá de Baixo, which has been affected for decades by industrial pollution. Despite the health crisis, companies such as Viena Siderúrgica and Aço Verde Brasil, which are part of the distribution chain of Vale S.A., continue to operate as usual, putting the lives of hundreds of vulnerable people at risk.The inhabitants of Piquiá de Baixo suffer from major chronic respiratory diseases that make the young and the elderly extremely vulnerable to the pandemic...