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May 25th, 2016:

Smoking’s hidden victims: The Indonesian children as young as eight who suffer headaches and nausea from nicotine poisoning from harvesting tobacco for cigarettes with their bare hands

May 25th, 2016
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  • Indonesian children as young as eight are working in tobacco plantations
  • Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday that their health is at risk
  • Children have described feeling dizzy, nauseous and vomiting in the field
  • The tobacco is harvested for the domestic and international market
  • Much is is exported and sold overseas by multinational cigarette giants

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3608365/Indonesian-child-tobacco-workers-risking-health.html

Children are being put to work on tobacco plantations in Indonesia that supply some of the world’s biggest cigarette companies, putting their health at serious risk, Human Rights Watch warned Wednesday.

Despite Indonesian law prohibiting child labour in hazardous industries, the rights group documented dozens of cases of minors — some as young as eight — falling ill from handling raw tobacco and mixing pesticides with their bare hands.

Much of the tobacco harvested from the roughly 500,000 plantations across Indonesia is for the domestic market, where smoking rates are among the world’s highest.

Children are being put to work on tobacco plantations in Indonesia, putting their health at serious risk, Human Rights Watch warned Wednesday

Children are being put to work on tobacco plantations in Indonesia, putting their health at serious risk, Human Rights Watch warned Wednesday

Many young labourers described feeling dizzy, nauseous and vomiting after long days working in the fields

Many young labourers described feeling dizzy, nauseous and vomiting after long days working in the fields

Much of the tobacco harvested from the roughly 500,000 plantations across Indonesia is for the domestic market, where smoking rates are among the world's highest

Much of the tobacco harvested from the roughly 500,000 plantations across Indonesia is for the domestic market, where smoking rates are among the world’s highest

But one quarter of all Indonesian tobacco is exported and sold overseas by multinational cigarette giants

But one quarter of all Indonesian tobacco is exported and sold overseas by multinational cigarette giants

The Indonesian government is being urged to prohibit children under 18 from working with tobacco

The Indonesian government is being urged to prohibit children under 18 from working with tobacco

The standard minimum working age is 15, but Indonesia's Child Protection Commission concedes enforcing the law is difficult

The standard minimum working age is 15, but Indonesia’s Child Protection Commission concedes enforcing the law is difficult

'I vomited in the fields and my dad told me to go home and rest. I was sick for two days,' one 12-year-old girl said

‘I vomited in the fields and my dad told me to go home and rest. I was sick for two days,’ one 12-year-old girl said

But one quarter of all Indonesian tobacco is exported and sold overseas by multinational cigarette giants, Human Rights Watch child advocacy director Jo Becker told AFP.

‘A smoker who is lighting up a Dunhill or a Lucky Strike or some other cigarette in Europe or the United States could well be smoking a cigarette that was made by child labour in Indonesia,’ Becker said.

Many young labourers described feeling dizzy, nauseous and vomiting after long days working in the fields, symptoms associated with ‘green tobacco sickness’, a type of nicotine poisoning, according to HRW’s new report.

Nicotine contained in tobacco plants is readily absorbed through the skin when handled, and is particularly harmful for children, Becker said.

‘I vomited in the fields and my dad told me to go home and rest. I was sick for two days,’ a 12-year-old girl from East Java, on the main island of Java, told the rights watchdog, who withheld her identity.

The government is being urged to prohibit children under 18 from working with tobacco. The standard minimum working age is 15, but Indonesia’s Child Protection Commission concedes enforcing the law is difficult.

‘Unfortunately these rules are not properly implemented in the fields,’ Erlinda, a senior official at the commission, told AFP. Many Indonesians go by just one name.

None of the major companies purchasing tobacco in Indonesia had policies ‘sufficient to ensure that children are protected’, Human Rights Watch wrote in its report.

Tobacco is purchased either directly from suppliers or via the open market, which is far more opaque and makes tracing origin difficult.

Philip Morris International — which owns Indonesian cigarette giant Sampoerna — has shifted towards sourcing the majority of its tobacco directly in recent years, allowing it to tackle child labour at the farm level but not rule it out entirely.

‘If we don’t know exactly who is producing that tobacco, what are the conditions, then we cannot provide that assurance,’ the company’s international sustainability officer Miguel Coleta told AFP.

British American Tobacco, which owns Indonesian subsidiary Bentoel as well as the Lucky Strike and Dunhill cigarette brands, said it did not employ children in any operations worldwide and warned its suppliers against doing so.

Three of Indonesia’s largest tobacco companies — Djarum, Gudang Garam and Wismilak — did not reply to repeated requests for comment.

 

Imperial Tobacco and British American Tobacco linked to child labour in Indonesia

May 25th, 2016
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HRW claims that tobacco companies should do more to eliminate child labour within they supply

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/imperial-tobacco-and-british-american-tobacco-linked-to-child-labour-in-indonesia-ngo-says-a7047736.html

Children reported working long hours in extreme heat and without wearing any type of protective equipment while handling tobacco Human Rights Watch

Children reported working long hours in extreme heat and without wearing any type of protective equipment while handling tobacco Human Rights Watch

Tobacco companies are not doing enough to prevent child labour in tobacco farming, according to Human Rights Watch.

Imperial Tobacco and British American Tobacco, two of the largest tobacco firms in the UK, both purchase tobacco from Indonesia. Both firms can’t guarantee that their tobacco is not made using child labour, according to a new report by the rights group.

Philip Morris International and four other multinational companies were also named in the research.

“Most companies do some monitoring and report on their results, but it is not enough. The industry should get to the farm level and inspect how exactly their tobacco is made and where it is coming from. Tobacco companies should not be profiting from child labour,” Margaret Wurth, children’s right researcher at Human Rights Watch told The Independent.

Human Rights Watch conducted research between September 2014 and 2015 in tobacco farming in four provinces in Indonesia and interviewed more than 100 children under 18.

HRW claims that tobacco companies should do more to eliminate child labour within they supply chain through meticulous investigation as well as adequate monitoring and external audit.

hrw_indonesia2_tobacco_pho

Indonesia is the world’s fifth-largest tobacco producer, home to more than 500,000 tobacco farms nationwide.

Hundreds of children as young as eight are endangering their health by participating in a range of tasks including planting applying pesticides or harvesting tobacco leaves by hand, HMW said.

Many suffered from nausea, vomiting and dizziness. These are all symptoms consistent with acute nicotine poisoning or ‘green tobacco sickness’, the group claims.

“After too long working in tobacco, I get a stomach ache and feel like vomiting. It’s from when I’m near the tobacco for too long,” Rio, a 13-year-old boy, working on tobacco farms in Central Java, told HRW in 2014.

hrw2_indonesia_tobacco_pho

He likened the feeling to motion sickness, saying: “It’s just like when you’re on a trip, and you’re in a car swerving back and forth.”

Children also reported working long hours in extreme heat and without wearing any type of protective equipment while handling tobacco.

Wurth said it is the companies’ responsibility to ensure no child under 18 is working in direct contact with tobacco in any form.

All the multinational companies mentioned in the report are committed to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) human rights conventions.

Under these conventions, the general minimum age for admission to employment or work is 15 years old (13 for light work) and the minimum age for hazardous work is 18 (16 under certain strict conditions).

Philip Morris International (PMI), which has six of the world’s top 15 international brands including Marlboro, has the best practices when it comes to transparency and monitoring procedures, HRW said.

201605hrw_indonesia_tobacco

“We are encouraged to be recognized for the transparency of our efforts to address hazardous farm working conditions for children on tobacco farms in Indonesia. Our Agricultural Labor Practices (ALP) programme is showing tangible progress to eliminate child labor on all farms where we source tobacco, yet we agree with HRW that there is much work still be to done,” Miguel Coleta, PMI sustainability officer said.

Imperial Tobacco told The Independent that the company takes its responsibilities in the purchasing and cultivating of tobacco leaf very seriously and expect its suppliers’ work practices to reflect the high standards set by the company. But it admitted child labour is a risk in agricultural supply chains.

“Given the complexity of this problem of course it not possible to provide this guarantee. We source tobacco from more than 40 countries worldwide, and as just one of the many stakeholders involved, we cannot be everywhere at once” it said.

“That does not stop us from continuing to work with all out stakeholders, including HRW, to acknowledge and address concerns. Child labour is totally unacceptable,” the company added.

British American Tobacco said the company and its Indonesian subsidiary Bentoel, take the issue of child labour extremely seriously.

“We do not employ children in any of our operations worldwide and make it clear to all of our contracted farmers and suppliers that exploitative child labour will not be tolerated. In Indonesia, however, children often participate in agriculture to help their families, and to learn farming methods and skills from their elders,” BAT said.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) also recognises that in poor communities, often on small family farms, low risk work that doesn’t interfere with schooling and leisure time can be a normal part of growing up in a rural environment.

British American Tobacco said it is working with the Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco growing foundation (ECLT) and other stakeholders in Indonesia to tackle exploitative child labour in leaf growing areas, and are conducting research in to identify existing efforts, and current and ongoing needs.

“The insights gained from this research will allow for a new approach to be developed to tackle child labour in the region,” the company said.

Wurth said companies have the responsibility to create alternative opportunities for children in the region but not in jobs that put their health at risk.

“Businesses are encouraged not only to adopt child labour policies but also to work with government and social partners to promote education and programs to support youth employment and job opportunities for young workers,” Wurth said.

Investor mixes tobacco with lung clinics

May 25th, 2016
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http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/conflict-of-interest-_investor-mixes-tobacco-with-lung-clinics/42179148

A South African investment group has been strongly criticised for maintaining a controlling stake in a Swiss private hospital group, which treats patients for lung diseases, whilst at the same time investing funds in a tobacco firm.

The Swiss Lungenliga, an association that campaigns against the tobacco industry, has questioned whether the Hirslanden Group of private clinics is free to take an active stand against smoking while it is under the control of the investment vehicle Remgro.

Remgro is controlled by the South African Rupert family which initially made its money from tobacco and currently holds a stake in British American Tobacco, makers of the Lucky Strike and Parisienne cigarette brands. Since 2007, Remgro has owned Hirslanden’s parent company Mediclinic International.

“I find it extremely disturbing when such opposing interests are housed under the same roof,” Swiss Lungenliga director Sonja Bietenhard told the Nordwestschweiz newspaper. “I find it cynical and an ethical contradiction of the highest level.”

“Can [Hirslanden] fully engage in [helping people] stop smoking? Can it continue to criticise tobacco manufacturers? These are the questions I would like answered.”

Both Hirslanden and Remgro have declined to comment to the media. In 2007, shortly after taking over Mediclinic, the Mediclinic Chairman Edwin Hertzog told the Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper: “Smoking is a matter of personal choice.”

Smoking-related deaths

There is evidence that Hirslanden has continued to speak out against smoking since Remgro took over in 2007. For example, Karl Klingler, a specialist at Hirslanden’s lung clinic in Zurich penned a media article in 2012 with the headline “Stopping Smoking is the Best Medicine”. The article spelled out the health risks of smoking.

Since 1998, Hirslanden has run a clinic in Zurich with the express aim of helping people to quit smoking. That clinic is still operational.

But this has not assuaged the concerns of Lungenliga’s Bietenhard, who believes commercial interests have overridden health and ethical considerations. “From an economic perspective, I have some understanding for the investor who is only interested in making money,” she said ironically.

Last November, the Swiss health ministry produced a study on cancer that revealed that 9,500 people died of smoking-related illnesses in 2012, a figure that made up 15% of all recorded deaths in the country in that year.

While the number of deaths linked to tobacco products declined 13% in men between 1995 and 2012, the corresponding mortality rate of women rose 58%, the study revealed.

At the same time as the report’s publication, Health Minister Alain Berset put forward proposals to ban tobacco sales to under-18s and place restrictions of tobacco advertising. On May 1, 2010 Switzerland imposed a ban on smoking in public places to protect non-smokers from the effects of passive smoking.

Asia Pacific Tax Forum

May 25th, 2016
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E-cigarette users risking ‘dangerous levels’ of lung inflammation

May 25th, 2016
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https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/health/electronic-cigarette-users-risking-dangerous-levels-lung-inflammation/

Thousands of electronic cigarette users are risking dangerous levels of lung inflammation because of chemicals in the vapour they inhale, a new study has found.

Dr Andrew Higham from the University of Manchester says the vapour inhaled by e-smokers contains formaldehyde and acrolein – chemicals also found in traditional cigarettes – which could be harmful long term.

The university says its study, which used three brands of e-cigarettes to examine the effects of vaping on white blood cells taken from 10 non-smokers, is the first of its kind and will “empower” Britain’s estimated three million “vapers” to make “informed decisions” about whether to keep using them.

Last year, Public Health England urged Britain’s eight million cigarette smokers to start vaping after a government-backed report found that e-cigarettes were 20 times less harmful than tobacco.

But Dr Higham said: “Our research shows quite clearly that there are risks associated with long-term use of these devices in terms of pulmonary inflammation.

“There has been a lot of public discussion on e-cigarettes, but we think that the public needs to be aware of the potential harm these devices may cause, which will empower users to make informed decisions.”

The publication of the research comes a day after researchers at Imperial College London warned that people are still taking a ”bet“ by using the electronic devices and the long-term health risks were still unknown.

The Manchester study was funded by and conducted at the North West Lung Centre at the University Hospital of South Manchester – a world leading treatment and research centre for lung disease – and at the university’s Institute of Biotechnology.

It found that raised white blood cell activity in response to e-cigarette exposure was similar to that observed in smokers of traditional cigarettes and was characteristic of the debilitating lung condition Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Vaping is on the rise

The research is set to fuel the debate on e-cigarette safety. Separate figures show the proportion of people in Britain who have tried an e-cigarette increased from 8.9 per cent to 15.5 per cent between 2012 and 2014.

Most were smokers, but the number of non-smokers using electronic devices rose from 0.8 per cent to 2.1 per cent in the same period.

The Welsh Government this week dropped plans to enforce a ban on the use of e-cigarettes in a number of public places in Wales.

The electronic cigarette industry points to a separate report by the Tobacco Advisory Group of the Royal College of Physicians, which was published last month.

That report says: ”Some of the carcinogens, oxidants and other toxins present in tobacco smoke have also been detected in e-cigarette vapour, raising the possibility that long-term use of e-cigarettes may increase the risk of lung cancer, COPD, cardiovascular and other smoking-related diseases.

“However, the magnitude of such risks is likely to be substantially lower than those of smoking and extremely low in absolute terms.”

Less harmful than tobacco

Tom Pruen, chief scientific officer for the Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association, said: “A large number of studies on cell cultures have been done and they indicate that the vapour from e-cigarettes is much less harmful than smoke.

”A recent study which constantly exposed cells to e-cigarette vapour for eight weeks found some changes, but exposure to cigarette smoke under the same conditions killed so many of the cells in 24 hours that the experiment could not be run for longer.

“While vaping e-cigarettes is going to carry some small risk, it is without doubt much safer than continuing to smoke.”

Professor Kevin Fenton, national director of health and wellbeing at Public Health England, said: “While e-cigarettes are not 100 per cent safe, the crucial point is that they carry a fraction of the risk of smoking.

Harmful chemicals found in tobacco smoke are either completely absent in e-cigarette vapour or, if present, are much lower than in tobacco smoke.

“However smokers increasingly believe vaping is as dangerous as smoking and this mistaken belief may be discouraging some smokers from switching. The best thing a smoker can do is to quit completely, now and forever.”

E-cigarettes CAN cause lung damage, warn Manchester scientists

May 25th, 2016
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A study by the University of Manchester carried out at Wythenshawe hospital says the vapour can cause similar conditions to traditional cigarettes

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/e-cigarettes-can-cause-lung-11384841

Tens of thousands of electronic cigarette users are at risk of chronic lung disease, according to a new study by scientists from the University of Manchester .

Experts say that using e-cigs or “vaping” can cause the same debilitating conditions as smoking normal cigarettes.

They claim the study, which is the first of its kind, shows that chemicals found in the e-cig vapour have been known to lead to conditions such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Dr Andrew Higham from The University of Manchester says it contains formaldehyde and acrolein – similar to traditional cigarettes – which could be harmful if taken over the long term.

In research published in the open access journal Respiratory Research, Dr Higham examined the effect of e-cig exposure on human white blood cells taken from 10 non-smokers.

The study was funded by the North West Lung Centre, which is based at the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust (UHSM).

It was carried out at Wythenshawe hospital , and the University’s Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, where three brands of e-cigarette were investigated.

Scientists noticed a raised activity of the white blood cells following exposure to the vapour, similar to that observed in the presence of traditional cigarettes.

It is also a characteristic of the debilitating lung condition Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, an illness commonly found in smokers.

The University’s research is expected to fuel the debate on the safety of e-cigarettes.

Dr Higham says the results raise concerns over the safety of e-cig use.

He said: “Our research shows quite clearly that there are risks associated with long-term use of these devices in terms of pulmonary inflammation.

“There has been a lot of public discussion on e-cigarettes. But we think that the public needs to be aware of the potential harm these devices may cause which will empower users to make informed decisions.”

There are an estimated three million users of electronic cigarettes in the UK.

They are often used as an alternative to traditional cigarettes to avoid the unwanted health effects.

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