Jump to full article: CNN, 2009-09-25
Author: Olivia Sterns For CNN
Intro: * Children can absorb up to 50 cigarettes worth of nicotine on wet days
* Wearing gloves, washing clothes or bathing would all reduce exposure and risk
* Green Tobacco Sickness 'feels like death,' induces headaches, nausea
* Report reveals widespread abuse of child workers, withheld wages, violence
. . .
Hundreds of thousands of children worldwide are thought to be working full-time on tobacco farms, suffering from toxic levels of nicotine exposure and abusive labor conditions.
Children as young as five-years-old work on tobacco farms in Malawi, according to Plan International.
In Malawi alone there are an estimated 78,000 boys and girls employed in tobacco harvesting. On average they earn 17 cents for a 12-hour day of back-breaking, bare-handed work, according to a recent report from Plan International.
Handling burley tobacco leaves without gloves, in unwashed clothes and rarely bathing, these children can absorb the same amount of nicotine in one day of harvesting that they would from smoking 50 cigarettes. . . .
Today UNICEF, the ILO, Plan and others all remain active in Malawi, working with the government to develop links between the ministries of labor and agriculture to end child labor on tobacco farms.
Since the report came out in August, Plan International told CNN in an email that "the government has been constructive in their response and are discussing/looking to work with Plan to conduct a national survey to gauge the true scale of the issue and better enforcement of existing child labor laws."
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