[Brazilian cases and the debate about risk communication and governance in areas contaminated by lead].

This investigation focused on lead contamination case studies in Brazil. The situations studied involve communities living in Santo Amaro da Purificação and Adrianópolis, in the north-east and south of Brazil, respectively. These communities have all had to live with environmental contamination and human exposure to lead as a consequence of industrial, mining and processing activities that were conducted by the same company for decades in a manner inconsistent with modern mining and industrial standards, with little control of environmental and human health impacts.