US tobacco fields campaign makes inroads

The decision by a leading US tobacco growers’ organisation to oppose hiring children under 16 to work on tobacco farms is an important step toward ending this hazardous employment practice, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said. The campaign group was commenting after the Council for Burley Tobacco, representing approximately 5,000 tobacco growers, approved a resolution stating “workers under 16-years-old should not be employed in tobacco production not only in the US but worldwide.”

The decision by a leading US tobacco growers’ organisation to oppose hiring children under 16 to work on tobacco farms is an important step toward ending this hazardous employment practice, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said.

The campaign group was commenting after the Council for Burley Tobacco, representing approximately 5,000 tobacco growers in Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, and Ohio, approved a resolution stating “workers under 16-years-old should not be employed in tobacco production not only in the US but worldwide.”

HRW’s associate children’s rights director Jane Buchanan said: “The Council for Burley Tobacco has taken a principled stance to protect the youngest workers from hazards in tobacco farming.” She added: “The council and its members should build on this important step and expand the policy to cover all children under 18, in keeping with international labour standards.”

Rod Kuegel, president of the Council for Burley Tobacco, told HRW in a 2 September email that the council would urge other tobacco grower groups internationally to follow its lead and prohibit hiring children.

The action follows an HRW report published in May that documented hazardous child labour on tobacco farms in Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia. Children between the ages of 7 to 17 interviewed by HRW said they were exposed to nicotine, toxic pesticides, and other dangers while working 50 to 60 hours a week in extreme heat on tobacco farms in the United States.
Most said they got sick while working, with headaches, vomiting, dizziness, skin rashes, and other class symptoms of acute nicotine poisoning, or ‘Green Tobacco Sickness’.