TECHNOLOGY RISKS - A STUDY OF THE RISKS O F INTRODUCING THE MIXTURE OF 60-PERCENT ETHANOL 33-PERCENT METHANOL/7-PERCENT GASOLINE IN BRAZIL/

Brazil has used ethanol as car fuel on a large social scale since 1979 . Nevertheless, due to the lack of a solid governmental policy, it fac ed a deficit of 2 billion liters of ethanol during a period of six mon ths at the end of the 80's. The solution proposed by the government, a fter a series of laboratory tests, was the use of the mixture 60% etha nol / 33% methanol / 7% gasoline as an alternative fuel. The objective was to avoid rationing or the massive conversion of the ethanol vehic le fleet to gasoline, which on environmental terms would mean disaster to the big cities. The announcements of this alternative by the gover nment, however, generated a controversy the public arena about the ris ks that the mixture might bring to man's health and to the environment . The objective of this paper is to discuss the main features of the s ocial construction process of the underlying risk analysis based upon a step by step analysis of this controversy. This process is seen as a continuing construction and demolition of scientific proofs and their associated statements mobilized by the actors in the controversy. The re is nothing inherent in the capacity of a given statement to resist strenuous challenges, to attract the support of other actors, during t he controversy, and to become established to the point of making the l arge scale introduction of a new fuel viable. Such viability is attrib uted by many actors, through numerous negotiations, who were mobilized to produce the statement and guarantee its space to circulate and its capacity to resist attacks Technological risk analysis are hybrid con structions that, from the initial phase of laboratory tests, mix techn ical, scientific, economic, social and political components.