Malawi child tobacco workers exposed to nicotine

Source: AP

BLANTYRE, Malawi — Children picking tobacco in the fields of Malawi for consumers far beyond the African country's borders are being poisoned as they absorb up to two cigarette packs' worth of nicotine each day, a children's rights organization said Monday,

The "extremely high levels of nicotine poisoning" produces not only nausea, headaches, dizziness, difficulty in breathing and other symptoms but "long-lasting changes in brain structure and function," London-based Plan International said in a report.

It noted that large-tobacco production has shifted from the United States to developing countries like Malawi, where "children are being exposed to exploitative and hazardous working conditions."

More than 78,000 children, some as young as 5, work on tobacco estates across the southern African country, some up to 12 hours a day for less than 1.7 cents an hour and without protective clothing, the report asserted.

Entitled "Hard work, long hours and little pay," the report said workers absorb up to 54 milligrams a day of dissolved nicotine through their skin. The report initially said that is equivalent to 32 cigarettes but Plan International revised it to 50....

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Bet these kids are awake.

:dunce:

while we processed the bright leaf tobacco crop. I started when I was 6 years old. A lot of people have done the same thing.

What fun it was to find out later that I might as well have been smoking - smoking a lot. I have never smoked.

We worked from "can't see to can't see." That was about 12 hours a day. I started out with a grand salary of 50 cents a day. When I stopped 12 years later, I was making $10 a day.

It was the hardest physical work I have ever done. It was in 100 degree heat. It was also the dirtiest. Green tobacco contains a black sap that will collect on you as you work with it. You can roll it off your skin. I don't even want to know what other chemicals I was exposed to.