Laboratories investigate the quality of agricultural protective clothing and gloves

One of the most relevant initiatives in the country to protect workers from exposure to agricultural pesticides, the IAC Program for the Quality of Personal Protective Equipment in Agriculture (Quepia) today takes another step towards consolidating itself as a reference in the area. Two laboratories of the program, from the SP Secretariat of Agriculture and Supply, will be opened at the Engineering and Automation Center of the Agronomic Institute (CEA-IAC), a body of the São Paulo Agribusiness Technology Agency (Apta), based in the city of Jundiaí.

Aimed at studies that aim to improve quality and safety standards linked to personal protective equipment for agriculture - items widely used in agricultural pesticide applications - the laboratories occupy an area of ​​300 m² and were financed with private resources and Fundag - Agricultural Research Support Foundation.

Coordinator of the Quepia program for 13 years, in addition to being a scientific researcher at CEA-IAC, agricultural engineer Hamilton Ramos highlights that the research center's work with the agricultural protective clothing industry reduced from 80% to 20% between the years 2000 and 2018, the disapproval rate for products of this kind manufactured in the country.

“As happened in the clothing industry, the protective gloves laboratory is now born with the goal of promoting continuous improvement in the quality of these products, as it brings together resources that allow the transfer of cutting-edge technological subsidies to manufacturers and distributors in the area present in Brazil.”

Ramos also highlights that the CEA-IAC glove laboratory is the first opened in the world exclusively dedicated to the certification of these products, and is already able to conduct analyzes based on the newly created ISO 18.889 quality standard. Specific to agricultural gloves, the standard was developed with the collaboration of the researcher, who is a permanent member of the global committee of the International Standardization Organization.

Hamilton Ramos also adds that the IAC-Quepia Quality Seal, until now only granted to manufacturers of protective clothing, will be extended to the agricultural gloves market in the coming months. To achieve the coveted certification, companies in the segment must join the IAC-Quepia program and submit their products to quality analyzes at the laboratory opened today.

The IAC-Quepia program is the result of a partnership between CEA-IAC and the private sector. According to Ramos, in the last decade the public-private initiative influenced relevant measures by the Ministry of Labor, among other official bodies, with a view to protecting rural work, including Ordinances that conditioned the issuance of quality certificates for clothing on compliance with standards international manufacturing companies.

“Internationally, Quepia has been working for more than ten years in partnership with scientists from Europe and the United States, regions that are equally advanced in improving the quality of products capable of reducing human exposure to agricultural pesticides”, concludes Ramos.

The inauguration event of the Quepia laboratories will also mark the 50th anniversary of CEA-IAC and will be attended by the Secretary of Agriculture, Gustavo Junqueira, as well as the mayor of Jundiaí, Luiz Fernando Machado (PSDB-SP).