Teenagers, mostly immigrants, working 12-hour shifts in hazardous conditions in tobacco fields

"For years, public-health experts and federal labor officials have sought to bar teenagers under 16 from the tobacco fields, citing the grueling hours and the harmful exposure to nicotine and other chemicals, but their efforts have been blocked," Steven Greenhouse reports for The New York Times. Many of the young workers are immigrants or children of migrant workers. (NYT photo by Travis Dove: Saray Cambray Alvarez, 13, works near Pink Hill, N.C.)

There is no federal law barring children 12 and older from working any length of time in a tobacco field, as long as it doesn't interfere with school, Greenhouse writes. That means it's not uncommon to see 12-, 13-, 14- and 15-year-olds pulling 12-hour shifts during the hot, humid summer. In contrast, federal law sets a minimum working age at 14 for non-farm work, and children under 16 are limited to working eight hours a day.

"Three years ago, Hilda Solis, then the labor secretary, proposed declaring work in tobacco fields and with tractors hazardous — making that type of work illegal for those under 16," Greenhouse writes. The Obama administration, during the middle of a election year, "withdrew Ms. Solis’s proposed rule after encountering intense opposition from farm groups and Republican lawmakers. Agricultural organizations said the move would hurt family farms and make it harder for young people to learn farming skills."

Meanwhile, public-health experts say hundreds of children under 16 continue to work in America’s tobacco fields, Greenhouse writes. "Dr. Thomas A. Arcury, an expert on tobacco and migrant workers and a professor at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, said tobacco work was particularly harmful to children, pointing to nicotine poisoning, pesticides and dehydration." Arcury told Greenhouse, “They’re not small adults; they’re children. They have more surface area to body mass. They’re still developing neurologically. Their reproductive systems are developing.”

"Last year, Human Rights Watch interviewed 141 tobacco workers, ages 7 to 17, for a lengthy study, finding that three-quarters had suffered nausea, dizziness and rashes," Greenhouse writes. Edinson Bueso Ramirez, 15, whose family fled Honduras because of gang violence, told Greenhouse, “They take advantage of the younger workers. They rip you off on pay. My mom, she worries I might get hurt at work. I tell her, ‘We need it to pay the bills.’”

In addition to sickness, teenage workers also complain about lack of access to water and bathrooms, sexual harassment and having to wrap their bodies in garbage bags to avoid being exposed to harmful chemicals, Greenhouse writes.

Not all tobacco interests want young workers, Greenhouse writes. "Philip Morris International bans its growers from using workers under 18, a measure that goes well beyond American law. Some labor contractors, however, evidently flout this requirement without the growers’ knowledge." (Read more) Also, the Council for Burley Tobacco has said no workers under 16 should work in tobacco.