Yesterday, June 12th, marked World Day Against Child Labor. For this occasion I highlight the plight of young children employed to work in the tobacco agribusiness in the United States. It is estimated, by Deutsche Welle, that 500,000 children labor in this market; most are exposed to hazardous conditions ranging from exposure to high levels of nicotine and pesticides, farm implements, and long working hours among others. Variances in the standard federal child labor standards permit tobacco growers to employ children–some of whom are under twelve years in age.
After decades of public objection and later government restrictions on advertisements, marketing, and distribution of tobacco products to minors for reasons not limited to just health and nicotine dependency, the cultivation of “green tobacco” by children exposes them often to immediately hazardous levels of nicotine at often unconscionably young ages.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) in 2013 published an extensive study into the child labor practices of the tobacco growers industry in four states: North Carolina; Kentucky; Tennessee; and Virginia. According to this study one hundred and forty one children participating in the tobacco harvests of 2012 and 2013 were interviewed by HRW. Ages of these children ranged from seventeen to as young as seven.
According to this study, “nearly three quarters of those interviewed reported sudden onsets of serious illnesses—including nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, headaches, dizziness, skin rashes, difficulty breathing, irritations to their eyes and mouths—while working in the fields of tobacco plants and barns with dried tobacco leaves and tobacco dust. Many of these symptoms are consistent with acute nicotine poisoning.”
Duties assigned to children in tobacco cultivation and harvesting included seed planting, topping, thinning undesirable leaves, applying pesticides, harvesting leaves by hand or with machinery, cutting plants with sharpened tobacco knives, storage and removal of cured leaves from barns, and stripping and sorting dried leaves.
Resulting from these exposures, often from unprotected skin and lax safety policies, children suffer often from a condition known as Green Tobacco Sickness. This illness is an occupational disease caused by workers absorbing nicotine through their skin after prolonged exposure to the plants. These symptoms, references earlier, are identified by Public and Occupation health officials. The long term effects are currently unknown though other studies on the usage of tobacco products (such as smoking) in adolescents may have links to complications in brain development. Public health research indicates that non-smoking workers in tobacco agriculture have similar levels of nicotine in their bodies as do smokers in the general population.
The study contained interviews consistent with their findings generally, where child workers reported being sprayed by pesticides applied to rows nearby causing illnesses contemporaneously. To mitigate this environment the children often would bring plastic garbage bags with them that they could fashion into ad-hoc raingear to resist spray landing on their clothes and skin—though this did not protect necessarily their hands and faces.
Due to the nature of tobacco cultivation and harvesting occurring within the summer months, the combination of high levels of heat and long hours of labor puts great amount of stresses on children that often culminate with heat stroke and dehydration. Compliance with break time standards is widely varied with some farms providing a reasonable break period for workers and others mandating that workers continue almost without pause.
The introduction of labor contractors, those who sell labor for a fixed price to farmers and where the workers are actually the employees of the contractor, has provided an opportunity for exploitation. Since these contractors retain earnings based on the margin between the revenue from the farm and the labor costs they endure, the temptation to extract more earnings often becomes high; especially in light of the fact that most workers are of an economic underclass that is less likely to report labor abuses and especially in the case of children having not the life experience or foreknowledge of what constitutes a proper and healthy working environment.
Compounding the problem is that current U.S. child labor laws permit children to labor in tobacco farms with liberal policies that permit very young children to work simply with parental permission to do so. It is often the case where this parental permission is granted by parents who also work on these farms where low wages create a need and temptation for parents allowing their children to work to supplement household incomes. Small farms are given the most leeway to employ young children. Agriculture is permitted by federal law to employ children as young as twelve with parental permission but with these small farms children under twelve may labor with parental consent. In all other industries the employment of children under fourteen is prohibited, and children fourteen to fifteen may only be employed in certain jobs with a limited number of hours each day.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour for work in tobacco farms. Some employers caused children to be paid on a piece basis which can in some respects be exploited to motivate children to perform more productively than what is reasonable for their abilities. HRW reported children interviewed expressed that they are often confused as to the actual wage they are paid and some stating they were actually paid less than the minimum permitted. Contractors were said to stoop to the level of charging children for necessities such as water and for inaccurate recording of work performed.
Internationally, treaties ratified by the United States might actually be in conflict with current federal child labor laws and their applicability to the tobacco farming industry. HRW addresses this as follows:
International Standards on Child Labor
via Human Rights Watch
In recognition of the potential benefits of some forms of work, international law does not prohibit children from working. The International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention, which the US has ratified, obligates
countries to prohibit certain types of work for children under age 18 as a matter of urgency, including work that is likely to jeopardize children’s physical or mental health, safety or morals (also known as hazardous labor). The ILO leaves it up to governments to determine which occupations are hazardous to children’s health. Several countries, including major tobacco producing countries such as Brazil and India, prohibit children under 18 from performing work in tobacco farming. Based on our field research, interviews with health professionals, and analysis of the public health literature, Human Rights Watch has concluded that no child under age 18 should be permitted to perform any tasks in which they will come into direct contact with tobacco plants of any size or dried tobacco leaves, due to the health risks posed by nicotine, the pesticides applied to the crop, and the particular health risks to children whose bodies and brains are still developing.
The ILO Worst Forms of Child Labor
Recommendation states that certain types of work in an unhealthy environment may be appropriate for children ages 16 and older “on the condition that the health, safety and morals of the children concerned are fully protected, and that the children have received adequate specific instruction or vocational training in the relevant branch of activity.” Because exposure to tobacco in any form is unsafe, Human Rights Watch has determined, based on our field investigations and other research, that as a practical matter there is no way for children under 18 to work safely on US tobacco farms when they have direct contact with tobacco plants of any size or dried tobacco leaves, even if wearing protective equipment. Though protective equipment may help mitigate exposure to nicotine and pesticide residues, rain suits and watertight gloves would not completely eliminate absorption of toxins through the skin and would greatly increase children’s risk of suffering health related illnesses. Such problems documented by Human Rights Watch in the US seem likely to extend to tobacco farms outside the United States
HRW called upon the tobacco product manufactures and tobacco leaf companies to provide statements of their policy to address the issue of child labor. The NGO queried “companies that source tobacco from the states we visited. Eight of those companies manufacture tobacco products (Altria Group, British American Tobacco, China National Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco Group, Japan Tobacco Group, Lorillard, Philip Morris International, and Reynolds American), and two are leaf merchant companies (Alliance One International and Universal Corporation).”
In the months prior to the release of this report, HRW sent letters to each company and requested a response along with a request to meeting with company officials to discuss the issue. The HRW report stated the following regarding these exchanges:
Nine companies responded to Human Rights Watch and stated that they took steps to prohibit child labor in their supply chains. Only China National Tobacco did not respond to Human Rights Watch’s letter or repeated attempts to secure a meeting with company executives.
All of the tobacco manufacturing companies and leaf supply merchants that replied to Human Rights Watch expressed concerns about child labor in their supply chain. Only a few of the companies have explicit child labor policies in place. The approaches to child labor in the supply chain varied from company to company, as detailed below. Human Rights Watch correspondence with these companies is included in an appendix to this report, available on the Human Rights Watch website.
Of the companies approached by Human Rights Watch, Philip Morris International (PMI) has developed the most detailed and protective set of policies and procedures, including training and policy guidance on child labor and other labor issues which it is implementing in its global supply chain. PMI has also developed specific lists of hazardous tasks that children under 18 are prohibited from doing on tobacco farms, which include most tasks in which children come into prolonged contact with mature tobacco leaves, among other hazardous work.
Several companies stated that in their US operations they required tobacco growers with whom they contract to comply with US law, including laws on child labor, which, as noted above, do not afford sufficient protections for children. These companies stated that their policies for tobacco purchasing in countries outside of the US were consistent with international law, including with regard to a minimum age of 15 for entry into work under the ILO Minimum Age Convention, with the exception of certain light work, and a prohibition on hazardous work for children under 18, unless national laws afford greater protections. However, most companies did not specify the tasks that they consider to constitute hazardous work. Under these standards, children working in tobacco farming can remain vulnerable to serious health hazards and risks associated with contact with tobacco plants and tobacco leaves. A number of companies stated that they had undertaken internal and third party monitoring of their supply chains to examine labor conditions, including the use of child labor, as defined within the scope of their existing policies.
100 years later are we still doing enough?
To commemorate World Day Against Child Labor it is time to perhaps seek a reassessment of the need to employ children in an occupation that studies have shown is hazardous to their health, especially during their development. We as a society have said no to the notion of children consuming nicotine as end users but we have been mostly blind to the poisonous effect of the substance on children participating in its cultivation. Yet with inconsistent oversight by tobacco companies of their farm suppliers, it is likely that opposition from the tobacco states will result in protective child labor laws. The indifference to the subject by Congress is often due to lack of demands from their constituents and heavy lobbying efforts by the tobacco industry. It is not likely these children will see improvement in their young lives as long as they are employed in an industry that in many ways is shown to be detrimental to their wellbeing.
Since approximately ninety percent of the tobacco produced in the United States comes from these four tobacco states, it is probable that they industry still will survive the additional cost of a tobacco leaf that is harvested by an adult or machine instead of a child but it is unlikely tobacco agribusinesses will want you to believe such a reality.
A true measure of a society is how well it treats its most vulnerable.
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
229 thoughts on “The Tobacco Industry And Child Labor”
Isaac, I am always for encouragement, having coached for decades. Discouragement, which you liberals love, should only be used sparingly. One thing I know we both agree on and that is exercise. We need to get these fat assed people out of their apartments/houses and doing something physical. There are some people over which there is some leverage. I think people on the dole should be required to put down the remote, stop watching the Duggars, and get off their fat asses. You can also incorporate encouragement along w/ the requirement. Give them some free healthy food for making benchmarks in weight loss. And, anyone on the dole should also be required to do some volunteer work. Get them engaged and maybe they’ll become motivated to get off the dole.
Here’s the big problem w/ encouraging healthy eating. The liberal City of Madison had a produce truck w/ very cheap produce. It went into poor neighborhoods and nobody would go. But, the ice cream truck had kids and adults running out their doors. They just gave up on the produce trucks. I liked FLOTUS and her plant a garden. Black folk used to do that back in the 70’s. NO MORE. Poor Asians and Hispanics do, but poor black and poor white folk just eat crap. I’m the grocery shopper in our house. What I see in carts is disgusting. And, then I see the EBT card.
Loading...
And let me get on my organic soap box and take the opportunity to say that I don’t think children should work around pesticides.
Nick – a common subterfuge at farmers markets is for farmers to claim the produce is grown organically but not certified. People just care about getting pesticide free, not the certificate, so they buy it. I’ve known organic farmers that heard a farmer’s market manager advice conventional farmers to claim they used organic methods to make the market more successful.
If it’s organic, the farmer should proudly display his or her certification, after all the time and money it takes to get one. A less expensive option for smaller producers is Certified Naturally Grown.
Not all organic producers are the same. Mass-market organic dairies use high density dairy lots fed grain rather than grass pasture, which produces a better omega 3/6 profile. And their high throughput makes their milk more successful than the higher quality, healthier milks produced at smaller diaries that use healthier methods.
Get to know your producer.
Loading...
The trash collectors in my neck of the woods earn a good living. Sheet rock workers can use masks so they don’t breathe in the dust. We pay good money to have our septic system pumped. When one does hard, dirty, or dangerous work, one should be well compensated for it.
Loading...
When this topic was discussed on the lemonade thread, several of us expressly stated that any modification of child labor laws would still have to protect children from hazards. Many states have already modified their child labor laws so that children can work on family farms. People have discussed babysitting, shoveling snow, and bussing tables as children.
As long as the work is not any more taxing than that, and obviously not hazardous, then kids should be able to do it. Picking apples on Grandpa’s farm in the fall would be an example.
Obviously, exposing children to nicotine and pesticides does not meet those requirements.
Loading...
Paul,
You made the claim. You’re the one who should provide information to prove your claim is factual.
Loading...
Karen, I will buy organic if I KNOW and TRUST the farmer. Otherwise, the odds are you’re being hoodwinked. Those Trader Joe folks are sitting ducks.
Loading...
I don’t see anyone here reveling in the idea that children are working in a toxic environment. I’ve already stated that children should not be working in areas that are toxic or in jobs that are beyond their stamina limits. I don’t see anyone thrilled that adults are also working in a toxic environment either. No one should be poisoned by their work.
However. Somebody has to do the dirty jobs. The ones that YOU don’t want to do. Pick up your garbage cans. Pump the sewage and service your septic tank. Swab tar on your roofs. Dig the ditches. Breath sheetrock dust in order to make your house pretty. Work is hard and work can be dangerous. Work can be dirty and nasty. That’s why YOU don’t do those things.
Would you suggest that the report should never have been published…and that Darren should not have brought it to people’s attention?
I would suggest that the people who did the study and published the report should also have taken some concrete steps to stop this practice. Maybe they have? We don’t know. It appears that the tobacco growers are supposed to, by contract, provide preventative clothing to minimize contact with the toxic substance.
Other than just completely stopping the farming of tobacco, there are steps that can be taken and seem to already have some steps done to minimize some of the danger. Stopping children, under the age of 16, from working in tobacco farms would be one step. HOWEVER, there are many other areas of agriculture where children can work. I did as a child. Others here have also shared their experiences working as children or in agriculture as children. Do you propose that farmers or business owners no longer be allowed to employ youths for summer jobs?
Life is full of danger. We don’t want to needlessly expose young children to known toxins, heatstroke, physical harm and illnesses. However, children deserve the right to grow up outside of a swaddled cocoon. Learn responsibility, earn their own money.
Loading...
Nick
The price of a pack of cigarettes should include a tax that reflects estimates of what tobacco use costs the US taxpayer for medical costs stemming from related illnesses. That is to say if a pack of cigarettes cost $15.00 and $12.00 from each pack would offset the estimated costs then that would be appropriate. Then the issue would be is that tax truly going to offset the medical costs. If it does or doesn’t does not negate the formula. You could say that the price of heroin should come down because some people can function while they are addicted. It is their choice. They perform their jobs. That is fine with me as long as the cost pays for education, medical costs unique to heroin use, and other related issues. If a pack of smokes cost $30 because that represented the real cost to society then so be it. It might be helpful to look back to a time when tobacco was first being introduced to Europe. People smoked it without the poisons which it contains today. People smoked it for its narcotic qualities but also and perhaps more for aroma and taste. The arts have always been a reasonable expression of the moment. Back in the day when tobacco, chocolate, coffee, and tea were enjoyed as luxuries for most portraits don’t include a cigarette dangling from a lip. When one complains about government control it might be wise to understand those other controls.
Regarding taxing fat people, no. You don’t tax people, you tax the crap they eat and make affordable healthier food. If a box of garbage was three times the cost of a box of healthy food and the tax on the garbage subsidized the healthy food, then a significant percent of fat and unhealthy people would benefit without experiencing any economic difference. The driving force is commerce but regulated commerce. Yes an individual has the Constitutional right to eat whatever he or she wants. However we as a society are not responsible for their stupidity and health costs.
It is not an issue of what the government bans or doesn’t ban. It is an issue of those in society who smoke, drink alcohol, and eat crap paying for their costs. I like to drink beer. I limit my consumption wholly because of caloric intake and if I drink too much too often I feel lethargic the next day. We are of moderate financial means yet if the cost of beer doubled it would not matter one bit. If I drank so much that the cost was an issue then I would have a problem that would probably cost society through my medical costs.
Medical insurance cannot charge everyone based on age, lifestyle, food and drink consumption, etc. That would be discriminatory and draconian. However the individual contribution and cost of the particular poison is an appropriate ingredient in addressing the responsibility issue.
If you can’t afford: tobacco, booze, drugs, etc then perhaps you will limit the intake of these potentially dangerous substances and the I and the We would benefit. Perhaps smoking the occasional cigarette instead of a pack or two a day would be the way one enjoyed tobacco. Perhaps the tobacco industry could be regulated into providing tobacco without a couple hundred poisonous ingredients. Perhaps half as much beer or other alcohol consumption would be more enjoyable, safer, and healthier. Both choice and responsibility are found in society.
I do not advocate banning guns but I do advocate a reasonable and responsible public oversight. I advocate banning all weapons that hold more than nine rounds. I advocate banning all automatic or semi automatic weapons. The argument that these weapons are out there and the individual has the right to protect themselves by having the same access to assault weapons and whatever is totally ludicrous. The government could and should make a concerted effort to remove all banned weapons from society. The size of the job should not result in ignoring it. I advocate licensing all weapons and dealing with the issue the same way as the motor vehicle branches do. An individual should have to ‘learn’ gun safety and other issues or at the very least prove this knowledge. An individual should only be able to own a gun if that individual is not in violation of the prescribed standards, i.e. ex con or whatever. The acknowledged mental capacity of an individual if found wanting should make that person ineligible to own a weapon. Not all but enough deaths due to weapons in the hands of those that should not have them would be avoided.
I know this means an infringement of the 2nd amendment to some but only those that read into the 2nd amendment what they want. The 2nd amendment is contradictory and lacks specificity by virtue of the time and conditions in which it was created. This is the 21st Century and America has problems almost totally unrelated to 1776.
One of the main reasons Americans are in such bad shape physically and certain public institutions such as medical and educational are so perversely behind those of our peer nations is not only the ignorance of those Americans that cling to some utopian concept of being able to exist without government but the control of our government by the oligarchs that profit from our ignorant ideals.
I advocate that we should all be free to be stupid, ignorant, and indulge ourselves as we wish. However, I advocate that we should pay the majority if not all of those costs ourselves. The society picking up the medical tab for someone who simply cannot afford it will always be with us. The appropriate way to offset these costs is by taxing the stuff that causes most of the diseases. Tobacco, alcohol, and super refined and sugar loaded crap costing twice as much would be a good thing.
Loading...
Treat farm workers better by buying organic.
Loading...
Karen – organic tobacco still has to be picked. 🙂
Loading...
Paul,
Who are the “lily-white” liberals of which you speak? The people who work for Human Rights Watch? The people who conducted the study/researched the problem? How do you know that they are all white…and all liberal. Do you mean to imply that conservatives don’t give a damn about the working conditions of poor children who toil in tobacco fields?
One has to study and document something that may be a serious health concern for some workers in this country. Then one has to publish the findings so people can be made aware of a problem that needs to be addressed. Would you suggest that the report should never have been published…and that Darren should not have brought it to people’s attention?
Loading...
Elaine – list the none lily white liberals who were part of the study group.
Loading...
I have empathy for people who have to feed their family and have to work their asses off to do it. Who will take a hard and even a dangerous job instead of collecting a government check. Those are the people who built this country. Not the government that feeds off the hard working people to hand it over to the takers and vampires who suck the life blood out of the economy.
Loading...
Elaine and Ken,
Absolutely NO surprise. It’s just ratcheted up the last year or so.
Loading...
PC is DEAD!!!!
Loading...
Ken Rogers,
“Who would have thought that the brutal exploitation and poisoning of children would have its apologists in the comments section of a civil liberties blog?”
I’m no longer surprised by some of the comments made on this blog by folks such as these.
Excerpt:
Young boys like the one I met at a shelter for rescued child trafficking victims near Allahabad, are locked inside carpet shacks in cramped quarters, beaten regularly, given meager allotments of food, suffer respiratory ailments from the high level of thread dust, and are force-fed stimulants to keep them working. They suffer deformed spines, malnutrition, vision ailments, and severe cuts from the sharp claw tool that is used to pull the thread down the loom.
The young boy said he was told wild dogs were in the forest outside the loom and would eat him if he tried to escape. He was also told that if anyone ever knocked on the door, he and the other boys should not say a word or the guards would kill them, and their families.
Loading...
@ Darren Smith
Wow!
Who would have thought that the brutal exploitation and poisoning of children would have its apologists in the comments section of a civil liberties blog?
Very informative essay, Darren. Thanks for researching and writing it.
I had no idea how hazardous tobacco farming is, nor that children are engaged in it, and under such brutal conditions.
These conditions make almost idyllic by comparison many of those in foreign sweatshops I’ve read about, in which the children (whose still-developing bodies and immune systems make them even more vulnerable to insult and injury than adult workers) are at least not poisoned on a daily basis.
Loading...
Statistically speaking it is a not even a blip on the radar.
“Lack of empathy is one of the most striking features of people with narcissistic personality disorder. It’s a hallmark of the disorder in the same way that fear of abandonment is in borderline personality disorder.
Narcissists do not consider the pain they inflict on others; nor do they give any credence to others’ perceptions,” says Dr. Les Carter in the book Enough of You, Let’s Talk About Me (p. 9). “They simply do not care about thoughts and feelings that conflict with their own.” Do not expect them to listen, validate, understand, or support you.
Note that narcissists can pick up on social cues and can “fake it” when necessary. Aside from looking “normal,” the hope is that they will get something back.”
Loading...
Paul,
Most children who harvest tobacco are poor and lack health insurance. The children in the HRW report were, on average, 13 when they started picking tobacco. Nearly all were Hispanic, the ethnic group least likely to have healthcare coverage. Four out of five were U.S. citizens, according to Arcury, but many were the children of undocumented immigrants.
I doubt these children would be working in tobacco fields if their families weren’t so poor. I’d say this is a good reason why there should be universal healthcare coverage.
Loading...
Elaine – these lily-white liberals run this study but cannot spend the money to take the kids to the doctor? They cry crocodile tears about the kids but cannot spend a dime on their health care?
Loading...
Trooper, Incredible how liberals can be so empathetic when it is tied to evil tobacco. I expressed concern for kids being raped and murdered in my FIRST comment. I KNOW that is a more pressing problem than this issue,and you do as well, expressing it well in your open letter. I WORKED IN THE INNER CITY as a VISTA VOLUNTEER. I LIVED in the inner city. I helped victims of the mean streets. I VOLUNTEER tutoring at risk kids. WTF do these liberals do except talk?? And mofo do they talk!! Hypocrisy, thy name is liberal. They eat their fruit and veggies picked by children working in horrid conditions. I have given all of them an opportunity to express their “concern.” NOTHING. We have both talked about the holocaust in the inner city. NOTHING. They disgust me.
Loading...
Paul, I taught in a dairy farm area. That is HARD work. I had students, male and female, who did milking @ 4AM prior to coming to school and then again after school. I always taught my students practical things they could use in the real world. You may have noticed, young people do not know how to shake hands, an extremely important part of the real world. So, I would always shake my students hands and give them lessons on the proper way to do so. I could tell the farm kids because their hands were calloused. I always commended them on their hard work. Many of the kids were FFA[Future Farmers of America] members. When I lived in KC, FFA would have their national convention there. It was a big deal, w/ national pols always giving speeches. Well, I knew female cops who worked prostitute decoy and would always get some FFA kids trying to pick them up. The good cops would just lecture them and send them back to their hotel. I would tell that story to the FFA boys I had in my classes.
Loading...
Mike’s comment included CONCERN for these child tobacco workers. Others here appear to not have the human decency to do so. Perhaps they are incapable of empathy toward other people’s children, that is very sad to see in people who have children of their own. It does tend to explain this type of person’s behavior toward others.
Yesterday, June 12th, marked World Day Against Child Labor. For this occasion I highlight the plight of young children employed to work in the tobacco agribusiness in the United States. It is estimated, by Deutsche Welle, that 500,000 children labor in this market; most are exposed to hazardous conditions ranging from exposure to high levels of nicotine and pesticides, farm implements, and long working hours among others. Variances in the standard federal child labor standards permit tobacco growers to employ children–some of whom are under twelve years in age.
Resulting from these exposures, often from unprotected skin and lax safety policies, children suffer often from a condition known as Green Tobacco Sickness. This illness is an occupational disease caused by workers absorbing nicotine through their skin after prolonged exposure to the plants. These symptoms, references earlier, are identified by Public and Occupation health officials. The long term effects are currently unknown though other studies on the usage of tobacco products (such as smoking) in adolescents may have links to complications in brain development. Public health research indicates that non-smoking workers in tobacco agriculture have similar levels of nicotine in their bodies as do smokers in the general population.
The introduction of labor contractors, those who sell labor for a fixed price to farmers and where the workers are actually the employees of the contractor, has provided an opportunity for exploitation. Since these contractors retain earnings based on the margin between the revenue from the farm and the labor costs they endure, the temptation to extract more earnings often becomes high; especially in light of the fact that most workers are of an economic underclass that is less likely to report labor abuses and especially in the case of children having not the life experience or foreknowledge of what constitutes a proper and healthy working environment.
Isaac, I am always for encouragement, having coached for decades. Discouragement, which you liberals love, should only be used sparingly. One thing I know we both agree on and that is exercise. We need to get these fat assed people out of their apartments/houses and doing something physical. There are some people over which there is some leverage. I think people on the dole should be required to put down the remote, stop watching the Duggars, and get off their fat asses. You can also incorporate encouragement along w/ the requirement. Give them some free healthy food for making benchmarks in weight loss. And, anyone on the dole should also be required to do some volunteer work. Get them engaged and maybe they’ll become motivated to get off the dole.
Here’s the big problem w/ encouraging healthy eating. The liberal City of Madison had a produce truck w/ very cheap produce. It went into poor neighborhoods and nobody would go. But, the ice cream truck had kids and adults running out their doors. They just gave up on the produce trucks. I liked FLOTUS and her plant a garden. Black folk used to do that back in the 70’s. NO MORE. Poor Asians and Hispanics do, but poor black and poor white folk just eat crap. I’m the grocery shopper in our house. What I see in carts is disgusting. And, then I see the EBT card.
And let me get on my organic soap box and take the opportunity to say that I don’t think children should work around pesticides.
Nick – a common subterfuge at farmers markets is for farmers to claim the produce is grown organically but not certified. People just care about getting pesticide free, not the certificate, so they buy it. I’ve known organic farmers that heard a farmer’s market manager advice conventional farmers to claim they used organic methods to make the market more successful.
If it’s organic, the farmer should proudly display his or her certification, after all the time and money it takes to get one. A less expensive option for smaller producers is Certified Naturally Grown.
Not all organic producers are the same. Mass-market organic dairies use high density dairy lots fed grain rather than grass pasture, which produces a better omega 3/6 profile. And their high throughput makes their milk more successful than the higher quality, healthier milks produced at smaller diaries that use healthier methods.
Get to know your producer.
The trash collectors in my neck of the woods earn a good living. Sheet rock workers can use masks so they don’t breathe in the dust. We pay good money to have our septic system pumped. When one does hard, dirty, or dangerous work, one should be well compensated for it.
When this topic was discussed on the lemonade thread, several of us expressly stated that any modification of child labor laws would still have to protect children from hazards. Many states have already modified their child labor laws so that children can work on family farms. People have discussed babysitting, shoveling snow, and bussing tables as children.
As long as the work is not any more taxing than that, and obviously not hazardous, then kids should be able to do it. Picking apples on Grandpa’s farm in the fall would be an example.
Obviously, exposing children to nicotine and pesticides does not meet those requirements.
Paul,
You made the claim. You’re the one who should provide information to prove your claim is factual.
Karen, I will buy organic if I KNOW and TRUST the farmer. Otherwise, the odds are you’re being hoodwinked. Those Trader Joe folks are sitting ducks.
I don’t see anyone here reveling in the idea that children are working in a toxic environment. I’ve already stated that children should not be working in areas that are toxic or in jobs that are beyond their stamina limits. I don’t see anyone thrilled that adults are also working in a toxic environment either. No one should be poisoned by their work.
However. Somebody has to do the dirty jobs. The ones that YOU don’t want to do. Pick up your garbage cans. Pump the sewage and service your septic tank. Swab tar on your roofs. Dig the ditches. Breath sheetrock dust in order to make your house pretty. Work is hard and work can be dangerous. Work can be dirty and nasty. That’s why YOU don’t do those things.
Would you suggest that the report should never have been published…and that Darren should not have brought it to people’s attention?
I would suggest that the people who did the study and published the report should also have taken some concrete steps to stop this practice. Maybe they have? We don’t know. It appears that the tobacco growers are supposed to, by contract, provide preventative clothing to minimize contact with the toxic substance.
Other than just completely stopping the farming of tobacco, there are steps that can be taken and seem to already have some steps done to minimize some of the danger. Stopping children, under the age of 16, from working in tobacco farms would be one step. HOWEVER, there are many other areas of agriculture where children can work. I did as a child. Others here have also shared their experiences working as children or in agriculture as children. Do you propose that farmers or business owners no longer be allowed to employ youths for summer jobs?
Life is full of danger. We don’t want to needlessly expose young children to known toxins, heatstroke, physical harm and illnesses. However, children deserve the right to grow up outside of a swaddled cocoon. Learn responsibility, earn their own money.
Nick
The price of a pack of cigarettes should include a tax that reflects estimates of what tobacco use costs the US taxpayer for medical costs stemming from related illnesses. That is to say if a pack of cigarettes cost $15.00 and $12.00 from each pack would offset the estimated costs then that would be appropriate. Then the issue would be is that tax truly going to offset the medical costs. If it does or doesn’t does not negate the formula. You could say that the price of heroin should come down because some people can function while they are addicted. It is their choice. They perform their jobs. That is fine with me as long as the cost pays for education, medical costs unique to heroin use, and other related issues. If a pack of smokes cost $30 because that represented the real cost to society then so be it. It might be helpful to look back to a time when tobacco was first being introduced to Europe. People smoked it without the poisons which it contains today. People smoked it for its narcotic qualities but also and perhaps more for aroma and taste. The arts have always been a reasonable expression of the moment. Back in the day when tobacco, chocolate, coffee, and tea were enjoyed as luxuries for most portraits don’t include a cigarette dangling from a lip. When one complains about government control it might be wise to understand those other controls.
Regarding taxing fat people, no. You don’t tax people, you tax the crap they eat and make affordable healthier food. If a box of garbage was three times the cost of a box of healthy food and the tax on the garbage subsidized the healthy food, then a significant percent of fat and unhealthy people would benefit without experiencing any economic difference. The driving force is commerce but regulated commerce. Yes an individual has the Constitutional right to eat whatever he or she wants. However we as a society are not responsible for their stupidity and health costs.
It is not an issue of what the government bans or doesn’t ban. It is an issue of those in society who smoke, drink alcohol, and eat crap paying for their costs. I like to drink beer. I limit my consumption wholly because of caloric intake and if I drink too much too often I feel lethargic the next day. We are of moderate financial means yet if the cost of beer doubled it would not matter one bit. If I drank so much that the cost was an issue then I would have a problem that would probably cost society through my medical costs.
Medical insurance cannot charge everyone based on age, lifestyle, food and drink consumption, etc. That would be discriminatory and draconian. However the individual contribution and cost of the particular poison is an appropriate ingredient in addressing the responsibility issue.
If you can’t afford: tobacco, booze, drugs, etc then perhaps you will limit the intake of these potentially dangerous substances and the I and the We would benefit. Perhaps smoking the occasional cigarette instead of a pack or two a day would be the way one enjoyed tobacco. Perhaps the tobacco industry could be regulated into providing tobacco without a couple hundred poisonous ingredients. Perhaps half as much beer or other alcohol consumption would be more enjoyable, safer, and healthier. Both choice and responsibility are found in society.
I do not advocate banning guns but I do advocate a reasonable and responsible public oversight. I advocate banning all weapons that hold more than nine rounds. I advocate banning all automatic or semi automatic weapons. The argument that these weapons are out there and the individual has the right to protect themselves by having the same access to assault weapons and whatever is totally ludicrous. The government could and should make a concerted effort to remove all banned weapons from society. The size of the job should not result in ignoring it. I advocate licensing all weapons and dealing with the issue the same way as the motor vehicle branches do. An individual should have to ‘learn’ gun safety and other issues or at the very least prove this knowledge. An individual should only be able to own a gun if that individual is not in violation of the prescribed standards, i.e. ex con or whatever. The acknowledged mental capacity of an individual if found wanting should make that person ineligible to own a weapon. Not all but enough deaths due to weapons in the hands of those that should not have them would be avoided.
I know this means an infringement of the 2nd amendment to some but only those that read into the 2nd amendment what they want. The 2nd amendment is contradictory and lacks specificity by virtue of the time and conditions in which it was created. This is the 21st Century and America has problems almost totally unrelated to 1776.
One of the main reasons Americans are in such bad shape physically and certain public institutions such as medical and educational are so perversely behind those of our peer nations is not only the ignorance of those Americans that cling to some utopian concept of being able to exist without government but the control of our government by the oligarchs that profit from our ignorant ideals.
I advocate that we should all be free to be stupid, ignorant, and indulge ourselves as we wish. However, I advocate that we should pay the majority if not all of those costs ourselves. The society picking up the medical tab for someone who simply cannot afford it will always be with us. The appropriate way to offset these costs is by taxing the stuff that causes most of the diseases. Tobacco, alcohol, and super refined and sugar loaded crap costing twice as much would be a good thing.
Treat farm workers better by buying organic.
Karen – organic tobacco still has to be picked. 🙂
Paul,
Who are the “lily-white” liberals of which you speak? The people who work for Human Rights Watch? The people who conducted the study/researched the problem? How do you know that they are all white…and all liberal. Do you mean to imply that conservatives don’t give a damn about the working conditions of poor children who toil in tobacco fields?
One has to study and document something that may be a serious health concern for some workers in this country. Then one has to publish the findings so people can be made aware of a problem that needs to be addressed. Would you suggest that the report should never have been published…and that Darren should not have brought it to people’s attention?
Elaine – list the none lily white liberals who were part of the study group.
I have empathy for people who have to feed their family and have to work their asses off to do it. Who will take a hard and even a dangerous job instead of collecting a government check. Those are the people who built this country. Not the government that feeds off the hard working people to hand it over to the takers and vampires who suck the life blood out of the economy.
Elaine and Ken,
Absolutely NO surprise. It’s just ratcheted up the last year or so.
PC is DEAD!!!!
Ken Rogers,
“Who would have thought that the brutal exploitation and poisoning of children would have its apologists in the comments section of a civil liberties blog?”
I’m no longer surprised by some of the comments made on this blog by folks such as these.
India’s carpet industry plagued by child labor
8/16/2010
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/16/kara.human.traffic.india/
Excerpt:
Young boys like the one I met at a shelter for rescued child trafficking victims near Allahabad, are locked inside carpet shacks in cramped quarters, beaten regularly, given meager allotments of food, suffer respiratory ailments from the high level of thread dust, and are force-fed stimulants to keep them working. They suffer deformed spines, malnutrition, vision ailments, and severe cuts from the sharp claw tool that is used to pull the thread down the loom.
The young boy said he was told wild dogs were in the forest outside the loom and would eat him if he tried to escape. He was also told that if anyone ever knocked on the door, he and the other boys should not say a word or the guards would kill them, and their families.
@ Darren Smith
Wow!
Who would have thought that the brutal exploitation and poisoning of children would have its apologists in the comments section of a civil liberties blog?
Very informative essay, Darren. Thanks for researching and writing it.
I had no idea how hazardous tobacco farming is, nor that children are engaged in it, and under such brutal conditions.
These conditions make almost idyllic by comparison many of those in foreign sweatshops I’ve read about, in which the children (whose still-developing bodies and immune systems make them even more vulnerable to insult and injury than adult workers) are at least not poisoned on a daily basis.
Statistically speaking it is a not even a blip on the radar.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/stop-walking-eggshells/201201/lack-empathy-the-most-telling-narcissistic-trait
“Lack of empathy is one of the most striking features of people with narcissistic personality disorder. It’s a hallmark of the disorder in the same way that fear of abandonment is in borderline personality disorder.
Narcissists do not consider the pain they inflict on others; nor do they give any credence to others’ perceptions,” says Dr. Les Carter in the book Enough of You, Let’s Talk About Me (p. 9). “They simply do not care about thoughts and feelings that conflict with their own.” Do not expect them to listen, validate, understand, or support you.
Note that narcissists can pick up on social cues and can “fake it” when necessary. Aside from looking “normal,” the hope is that they will get something back.”
Paul,
Most children who harvest tobacco are poor and lack health insurance. The children in the HRW report were, on average, 13 when they started picking tobacco. Nearly all were Hispanic, the ethnic group least likely to have healthcare coverage. Four out of five were U.S. citizens, according to Arcury, but many were the children of undocumented immigrants.
http://www.healthline.com/health-news/us-child-workers-sickened-by-tobacco-072714
*****
I doubt these children would be working in tobacco fields if their families weren’t so poor. I’d say this is a good reason why there should be universal healthcare coverage.
Elaine – these lily-white liberals run this study but cannot spend the money to take the kids to the doctor? They cry crocodile tears about the kids but cannot spend a dime on their health care?
Trooper, Incredible how liberals can be so empathetic when it is tied to evil tobacco. I expressed concern for kids being raped and murdered in my FIRST comment. I KNOW that is a more pressing problem than this issue,and you do as well, expressing it well in your open letter. I WORKED IN THE INNER CITY as a VISTA VOLUNTEER. I LIVED in the inner city. I helped victims of the mean streets. I VOLUNTEER tutoring at risk kids. WTF do these liberals do except talk?? And mofo do they talk!! Hypocrisy, thy name is liberal. They eat their fruit and veggies picked by children working in horrid conditions. I have given all of them an opportunity to express their “concern.” NOTHING. We have both talked about the holocaust in the inner city. NOTHING. They disgust me.
Paul, I taught in a dairy farm area. That is HARD work. I had students, male and female, who did milking @ 4AM prior to coming to school and then again after school. I always taught my students practical things they could use in the real world. You may have noticed, young people do not know how to shake hands, an extremely important part of the real world. So, I would always shake my students hands and give them lessons on the proper way to do so. I could tell the farm kids because their hands were calloused. I always commended them on their hard work. Many of the kids were FFA[Future Farmers of America] members. When I lived in KC, FFA would have their national convention there. It was a big deal, w/ national pols always giving speeches. Well, I knew female cops who worked prostitute decoy and would always get some FFA kids trying to pick them up. The good cops would just lecture them and send them back to their hotel. I would tell that story to the FFA boys I had in my classes.
Mike’s comment included CONCERN for these child tobacco workers. Others here appear to not have the human decency to do so. Perhaps they are incapable of empathy toward other people’s children, that is very sad to see in people who have children of their own. It does tend to explain this type of person’s behavior toward others.