Tobacco cultivation violates children's rights

On November 20, 1989, the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) established the fundamental principles for the protection of minors. The result is that more than 30 years later, tobacco manufacturers are still depriving some children of their most basic human rights. Let us recall that 90% of tobacco cultivation is concentrated in developing countries where tobacco producers are often trapped in a vicious circle of debt. Since the remuneration is often not enough to support a family, children work alongside their parents on tobacco plantations. In Malawi, a major tobacco exporter, 80,000 children are estimated to work on tobacco plantations.[1].

However, work in tobacco plantations is not without risk for these children who are exposed to the harmfulness of the pesticides used, such as DDT*, which is banned in most developed countries because of its danger to health and the environment, as well as to nicotine. For children who contract green tobacco disease through the skin – poisoning from nicotine naturally present in tobacco leaves[2], work and the associated financial gain are interrupted by vomiting, headaches and dizziness, but also abdominal cramps and breathing difficulties, even cardiac arrhythmia.

It goes without saying that working children do not receive optimal education and often end up dropping out of school. The debt surrounding tobacco plantations in developing countries thus deprives working children of their fundamental right to education and, by extension, drastically limits their choices for a better future. Behind the problem of child labor in tobacco plantations, it is the economic and social development of their communities and their countries that is at stake. Cigarettes are not only harmful to the health of consumers, they exploit and poison the most vulnerable children around the world.

©Tobacco Free Generation

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[1] https://www.who.int/tobacco/communications/events/wntd/2004/tobaccofacts_families/fr/1 https://www.brut.media/fr/international/l-impact-de-la-cigarette-sur-l-environnement-7989a584-ceb8-460d-9a04-d2e1850ec46e https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sante/maladie/malawi-quand-la-maladie-du-tabac-vert-consume-les-enfants_2951013.html [2] Arcury TA et al. High levels of transdermal nicotine exposure produce green tobacco sickness in Latino farm workers. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2003, 5:315-321 and Ballard T et al. Green tobacco sickness: occupational nicotine poisoning in tobacco workers. Archives of Environmental Health, 1995, 50:384-389. https://www.laliberte.ch/news-agence/detail/le-travail-des-enfants-est-frequent-dans-le-secteur-du-tabac-au-zimbabwe/434675 [i] https://www.unicef.fr/article/l-education-la-meilleure-arme-contre-le-travail-des-enfants ©DNF - For a Zero Tobacco World |