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• Tobacco's perils visit a Mexican village 

Like hundreds of other Huichol Indians who migrate into the heart of western Nayarit state for the three-month harvesting season, De la Cruz and his family live literally off the land, sleeping, bathing, and eating among the tobacco plants.

That means daily exposure to the tons of pesticides and other chemicals that are dumped on the plants, at the instruction of the US and European tobacco companies -- including Philip Morris and British American Tobacco. As a nonfood crop, tobacco is subject to less stringent pesticide laws than vegetables and fruits.

Nayarit, Mexico's tobacco region, has the country's most pesticide poisonings; government figures report an average of nearly 300 cases and several deaths per year, among a population of 1 million.

Activists say those numbers do not represent the extent of the problem, since most victims never see a doctor. . .

The tobacco companies, who determine which chemicals are used, say local landowners are ultimately responsible for protecting their workers.

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We finance [tobacco growers] and give them all the chemicals. But realistically, our supervisor can't be with them all day. At the end of the day, they are free to decide how to treat their workers, where to get them from and what to give them.
Matas Gomez, who directs Philip Morris's operations in Nayarit, Mexico, on the effects of tobacco pesticides on agricultural workers.