A Plan UK report has shown that children who are being employed as tobacco pickers in Malawi are being exposed to the nicotine equivalent of smoking 50 cigarettes a day. The child labourers, some as young as 5 years old, are absorbing up to 54 milligrams of nicotine a day whilst tying tobacco during their long hours of work. The workforce, who ply their trade for up to 12 hours a day at less than 1p an hour, have no protective clothing to withstand the nicotine that is seeping into their skin.
Malawi supply the ‘filler tobacco’ to multinational companies that use the low grade yet high in nicotine content tobacco to bulk out their cigarettes that are sold around the world. Almost 78,000 under age children work in the tobacco industry in Malawi, a staggering amount when you consider the hazardous conditions they are working in and toxins they are being exposed to. Effects from the over exposure to the tobacco cause a shortness of breath, headaches, weakness and severe coughing.
Plan Malawi’s Child Rights Advisor, Mcdonald Mumba, said –
This research shows that tobacco estates are exploiting and abusing children who have a right to a safe working environment. Plan is calling for better enforcement of child labour laws and harsher punishment for employers who break them. These children are risking their health for 11p a day and multinational tobacco companies, who profit vastly from child labour, need to take a more active responsibility for their involvement.
The children’s charity is now calling upon the local government of Malawi to enforce their child labour protection laws to there fullest to help stop this terrible trade. Also that plantations provide safer working conditions and age restrictions, along with the correct protective clothing for those needed to work in the tobacco fields. Most importantly, Plan are demanding that multinational tobacco companies look into the methods of production used to create their cigarette ‘filler’, and make sure that their own strict corporate guidelines are followed to the letter.
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