An inter-ministerial committee in Brazil has proposed a system that would obligate companies, ports and entities that handle chemical products to notify authorities about spills, given their serious threats to local populations. The environmental legislation would require immediate notification, and would punish inaction, but in many cases the gasoline stations — the main source of such accidents — discover the spills when they are already serious and have contaminated underground water sources, for example, says geologist Kátia Duarte, who investigated the issue in Brasilia while researching her doctoral thesis, completed in 2003.

From 1978 to 2005, in Sao Paulo, the only Brazilian state to systematically monitor chemical spills, there were 6,303 such accidents recorded — one-third involved liquid fuels.

An obligatory reporting system for spills is crucial for the effectiveness of the national plan adopted in 2004 to prevent environmental emergencies involving toxic chemicals.