Extreme Heat

Extreme Heat

All children interviewed by Human Rights Watch for this report stated that they often worked in high temperatures and high humidity typical for the summer months in North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Average high temperatures in July and August in many of the counties where children reported working range from 88 to 92 degrees Fahrenheit (31 to 33 Centigrade), often with high humidity. 128 Many children said that they felt faint or dizzy or suffered from headaches when working in very high temperatures. Many stated that they were expected to work without additional breaks in such conditions.

Yael A., 17, has been working for hire on tobacco farms in North Carolina since she was 14. “You feel like you can’t breathe when it’s really hot,” she said. 129 Andrea D., a 16-year-old seasonal worker, told Human Rights Watch about her experience working on a tobacco farm in Kentucky during the summer months: “When the sun is really beating hot, really hot, I would get like dizzy. I had to stop a minute. Especially when we’re taking out the weeds because that’s in the middle of June, and it’s hot. I never passed out, but I felt dizzy.” 130 Timothy S., age 13, has worked for hire with his father on tobacco farms in Kentucky since he was 12: “It was really hard to focus on work when it’s really hot. You’re

125 For a review of studies on pesticide exposure in tobacco workers, see Thomas A. Arcury and Sara A. Quandt, “Health and Social Impacts of Tobacco Production,” Journal of Agromedicine , vol. 11, no. 3-4 (2006), pp. 74-76. Studies of

organophosphate and carbamate exposure in agricultural workers in Kenya found 26 percent of tobacco workers showed evidence of pesticide poisoning, and study of Malaysian tobacco workers found one-third of workers showed symptoms of organophosphate pesticide exposure. 126 Email from Dr. Geoffrey Calvert, Team Leader, Epidemiology 1 Surveillance Team, Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations

and Field Studies, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to Human Rights Watch, November 27, 2013. 127 Thomas A. Arcury, Joseph G. Grzywacz, et al., “Repeated Pesticide Exposure among North Carolina Migrant and Seasonal

Farmworkers,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine, vol. 53, no. 8 (2010), pp. 6-9. 128 For average monthly temperatures in counties in the US, see http://www.weather.com/ (accessed March 14, 2014).

129 Human Rights Watch interview with Yael A., 17, Greene County, North Carolina, July 3, 2013. 130 Human Rights Watch interview with Andrea D., 16, Shelby County, Kentucky, August 7, 2013.

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Joseph T., an 18-year-old tobacco worker, described an incident in 2011 when he was working in a tobacco field in eastern North Carolina. He said:

It was in the hundreds, like 102 or 103 [degrees Fahrenheit]. … I forgot my hat. It was towards the end of the day. Like 3 p.m. … I could just feel like I was about to pass out. Your legs feel wobbly. You feel like you have to push yourself, you have to breathe really hard…I was about to faint, I felt like I needed water. I was seeing all colors. 132

Working long hours in high temperatures can place children at risk of heat stroke and dehydration, particularly if there is not enough drinking water and they are wearing extra clothes to protect from sunburn and exposure to nicotine and pesticides. Children are more susceptible than adults to heat illness. 133