T OBACCO ’ S H IDDEN C HILDREN 40

T OBACCO ’ S H IDDEN C HILDREN 40

States, also increase the risk of nicotine poisoning as the increase in surface blood flow to

help reduce body temperature facilitates nicotine absorption. 67

Though public health research has most often looked at nicotine poisoning among adult workers handling mature tobacco leaves, nicotine is present in tobacco plants and leaves in any form. According to Dr. Thomas Arcury, director of the Center for Worker Health at Wake Forest School of Medicine, “Nicotine is part of the plant. The tobacco

plant, by its nature, contains nicotine from the time it’s a seedling to the end.” 68 As a result, added Arcury, any task that requires the handling of tobacco in any form may

expose workers to nicotine. 69

Nicotine may affect human health in distinct ways depending on how it enters the body— whether absorbed through the skin, inhaled, or ingested. 70 Though the long-term effects of nicotine absorption through the skin are unknown, public health research on smoking indicates that nicotine exposure during childhood may have long-lasting consequences. According to the US Surgeon General’s most recent report, “The evidence is suggestive that nicotine exposure during adolescence, a critical window for brain development, may

have lasting adverse consequences for brain development.” 71

67 Robert H. McKnight and Henry A. Spiller, “Green Tobacco Sickness in Children and Adolescents,” Public Health Reports, vol. 120 (November-December 2005), p. 604.

68 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Dr. Thomas Arcury, director of the Center for Worker Health at Wake Forest School of Medicine, February 24, 2014. The US Department of Labor (DOL) has commented on the risks to children of

participating in many stages of tobacco production, including planting seedlings. In 2011, DOL proposed a regulation to prohibit all children under 16 (the minimum age for hazardous work in agriculture in the US) from “all work in the tobacco production and curing, including, but not limited to such activities as planting, cultivating, topping, harvesting, baling, barning, and curing.” However, the regulations were withdrawn in 2012 in response to pressure from agricultural groups. DOL, Wage and Hour Division, “29 CFR Parts 570 and 579: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Request for Comments: Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation; Child Labor Violations—Civil Money Penalties: Employment in Tobacco Production and Curing” in Federal Register, vol. 76, no. 171 (September 2, 2011) pp. 54864-54865, http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-09-02/pdf/2011-21924.pdf (accessed March 26, 2014). US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, “Child Labor Regulations, Orders and Statements of Interpretation; Child Labor Violations—Civil Money Penalties. Withdrawal of Proposed Rule,” Federal Register vol. 77, no. 103, May 29, 2012, https://webapps.dol.gov/federalregister/PdfDisplay.aspx?DocId=26108 (accessed January 22, 2014). For a description of the opposition to the proposed regulations, see e.g. Gabriel Thompson, “Why Are Children Working in American Tobacco Fields?,” The Nation, November 12, 2013, http://www.thenation.com/article/177136/why-are-children-working-american- tobacco-fields (accessed April 29, 2014).

69 Ibid. 70 Ibid; Thomas A. Arcury, Sara A. Quandt, et al,, “High levels of transdermal nicotine exposure produce green tobacco

sickness in Latino farmworkers,” Nicotine & Tobacco Research , vol. 5 (2003), p. 320. 71 US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General, The Health Consequences of

Smoking —50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: US Department of Health and Human Services, 2014, p. 126, http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/reports/50-years-of-progress/50-years-of-progress-by-section.html (accessed March 4, 2014).