title: Social movements and risk perception: unions, churches, pesticides and bananas in Costa Rica.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Between 1992 and 2010 in the Costa Rican Caribbean, a social movement coalition called Foro Emaús sought to change people's view on problems of high pesticide use in banana production.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To understand the formation and membership of Foro Emaús, its success period, and its decline.
  
  
  METHODS
  Semi-structured interviews of 28 key actors; a questionnaire survey among school personnel (n = 475) in Siquirres, Matina, and Talamanca counties; and secondary data from newspapers, leaflets, and movement documents were used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Foro Emaús developed activism around pesticide issues and put pressure on governmental agencies and banana companies and shaped people's perception of pesticide risks. The success of the Foro Emaús movement led to the reinforcement of a counteracting social movement (Solidarismo) by conservative sectors of the Catholic Church and the banana companies. We found that the participation of unions in Foro Emaús is an early example of social movement unionism.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Scientific pesticide risk analysis is not the only force that shapes emerging societal perceptions of pesticide risk. Social movements influence the priority given to particular risks and can be crucial in putting health and environmental risk issues on the political and research agenda.
authors.affiliation: Central American Institute for Studies on Toxic Substances, Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica. douglas.barraza.ruiz@una.cr
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Barraza
authors.forename: Kees
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jansen
authors.forename: Berna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: van Wendel de Joode
authors.forename: Catharina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wesseling
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D002410:Catholicism / Q000266:history*; D003364:Costa Rica; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D007750:Labor Unions / Q000266:history* / Q000458:organization & administration; D009042:Motivation; D028521:Musa; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010465:Perception; D010575:Pesticides / Q000266:history*; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012922:Social Change / Q000266:history*
chemical_list: D010575:Pesticides