Teens may not buy tobacco but may absorb nicotine
The US government and tobacco companies are failing to protect teenage children from hazardous work in tobacco farming, Human Rights Watch said in a report and video published yesterday.
The 72-page report, Teens of the Tobacco Fields: Child Labor in United States Tobacco Farming, documents the harm caused to 16- and 17-year-olds who work long hours as hired laborers on US tobacco farms, exposed to nicotine, toxic pesticides, and extreme heat.
Nearly all of the teenagers interviewed are said to have suffered symptoms consistent with acute nicotine poisoning – nausea, vomiting, headaches, or dizziness – while working on tobacco farms.
“Teenage children too young to legally buy a pack of cigarettes are getting exposed to nicotine while they work on US tobacco farms,” said Margaret Wurth, children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report. “The US government and tobacco companies should protect everyone under 18 from hazardous work in tobacco farming.”
Some US-based tobacco companies and growers groups took action in 2014 to ban employing children under 16 to work in tobacco farming, but excluded older teens from their policies. But Human Rights Watch says that 16- and 17-year-olds are still highly vulnerable to the effects of nicotine and pesticides, and that they too deserve protection.
Human Rights Watch conducted field research for the report in July in eastern North Carolina where it interviewed 26 children aged 16 and 17, as well as parents, experts in farm-worker and adolescent health, and tobacco growers.
Almost all of the teenagers who spoke to Human Rights Watch worked 11 or 12 hours a day in extreme heat, without suitable protective equipment, inconsistent access to toilets, and no place to wash their hands. Very few had been given any safety training or health education about the hazards of tobacco farming.
The report follows up on research published by Human Rights Watch in 2014 documenting hazardous child labor in US tobacco farming, including interviews with 141 child workers, aged 7 to 17, in four US states.
US laws and regulations offer less protection than most tobacco company policies on young people working in tobacco farming. Under US labor law, it is legal to hire 12-year-olds to work unlimited hours outside of school on a tobacco farm of any size with parental permission, and there is no minimum age for children to work on small tobacco farms or farms owned and operated by family members.
Under international law, the US is obligated to take immediate action to eliminate hazardous labor for those under 18, including any work that is likely to harm their health or safety. Tobacco companies, for their part, have a responsibility to work to prevent and eliminate serious human rights problems in their supply chains.
A bill introduced by Senator Richard Durbin and Representative David Cicilline would ban hiring anyone under 18 to work in direct contact with tobacco, but the bill has not been brought for a vote in either house of Congress.
“The US government needs to do much more to protect child workers from the dangers of tobacco farming,” Wurth said. “The US government and Congress should take urgent action to ban everyone under 18 from hazardous work on tobacco farms.”
The full report is at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/us1215tob_4up.pdf.