Tobacco.org

Children poisoned picking tobacco, study finds  

Child labourers in Africa's tobacco fields are slowly being poisoned by their exposure to high levels of nicotine and tobacco dust, while multinational companies increasingly shift their tobacco production to Africa, a new study says.

Many of the child workers, some as young as 5 years old, are exposed to the equivalent of 36 cigarettes a day as a result of absorbing nicotine through their skin from the tobacco leaves that they handle, according to the study to be released today by Plan International, a development agency based in Britain.

The children described how they have trouble breathing, suffer headaches and chest pains, and even cough blood as a result of toiling for up to 12 hours a day as tobacco pickers in the African country of Malawi, one of the biggest tobacco producers in the world.

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