Human Rights Group Blasts Big Cigarette Company Over Child Labor

Kids as young as 10, harvesting tobacco – and getting sick from it.

That’s what the group Human Rights Watch says it found in the central Asian nation of Kazakhstan.

The group also found that Philip Morris International – a huge cigarette company – was buying tobacco from farms that use child labor.

The Human Rights Watch released its findings Wednesday.

It said it found at least 72 cases of children working on tobacco farms in Kazakhstan – often alongside their parents. The children and their parents are reportedly migrant workers from poor, neighboring countries such as Kyrgyzstan.

According to Human Rights Watch, the tobacco farmers pay workers by how much tobacco they harvest. So parents are encouraged to bring their kids to work into the fields, in order to boost the family’s income.

“Children were working right alongside their parents for long seasons of tough manual labor,” the report said.  “They were exposed to high levels of nicotine and were not getting the education they deserve.”

As The New York Times reported Wednesday, many of the kids working on the tobacco farms developed “green tobacco sickness.” The nicotine from the tobacco was absorbed by their skin, which led to symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, dizziness and rashes.

According to Human Rights Watch, working in the tobacco fields for just one day is equal to smoking 36 cigarettes, when you’re talking about the amount of nicotine your body absorbs.

And we already know how deadly smoking can be.

“Children are especially vulnerable due to their small body size in relation to the dose of nicotine they absorb,” the report said.

Human Rights Watch reportedly contacted Philip Morris International with its findings before releasing its report.

In response, the company says it’s taking steps to make sure no farm that supplies its tobacco uses child labor. A Philip Morris spokesman also told the Times the company will require its suppliers to pay farm workers monthly wages, instead of paying them by how much they harvest.

“Philip Morris International is firmly opposed to child labor,” a company spokesman told the Times.