Tobacco: Al the Facts, Legislation, and How it Affects Your Health.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/pampanga/feature/2016/08/29/so-what-holding-commercialization-tobacco-products-494420
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Tobacco stalk, the most common agricultural waste that tobacco farmers have been discarding for centuries since commercial tobacco farming was introduced in the islands during the dawn of the tobacco monopoly, is in fact a diamond in the rough.
Tobacco stalk has been found to be a good source of pulp for the production of paper. Tobacco paper processing impacts less on the environment and has the potential to penetrate the country’s P30 billion paper industry if given a chance.
However, tobacco paper production remains a handicraft and hand-made industry.
Tobacco scrap has been found to be an effective mollouscide, meaning it is a cheap alternative in controlling farm snails that eat palay at the start of the cropping season.
One research has also shown that tobacco scarp can be used as alternative organic soil conditioner.
However, tobacco scrap has yet to be processed commercially.
Tobacco dust has also been proven by research done by the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) as a boost to local aquaculture and can even jumpstart initiatives for more organic aquaculture programs.
However, tobacco dust has yet to be fully developed for wider use.
So what is keeping these wonderful prospects from reaching full potential?
Local initiatives
In 1998, a research done by Agrupis, S., Maekawa, E. and Suzuki, K. J on the possible industrial utilization of tobacco stalks revealed that tobacco stalks have shown to posses the characteristics of a raw material for pulp and paper application.
“Fiber dimensions, chemical composition, and soda and soda-AQ pulping of tobacco stalks were examined to assess if they were suitable for pulp and paper production.
The results showed that the morphological characteristics of tobacco stalks were similar to those of non-woods and hardwoods,” the research said.
Author Jed Yabut said that the pulp and paper industry contributes about P30 billion per year in domestic sales value to the economy, or saves the country $700 million per year in foreign exchange from imported paper and board.
He added that as of 2012 the local paper industry directly employs about 6000, personnel, mostly skilled workers and technical professionals, and contribute value to the economy by sustaining the livelihood opportunities of about 1.2 million workers in the wastepaper collection, sorting, and hauling sub-sectors.
If pulp from tobacco stalk would transcend its current state as a handicraft product in can very well contribute in the wider paper market.
Currently, paper produced from tobacco is hand-made using processes of bio-mechanical pulping and non-conventional bleaching, which produce less impact on the environment. NTA is the only known supplier of tobacco hand-made paper as of press time. The NTA, in the past years, have trained farmer-leaders from four tobacco-based cooperatives from Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur. The idea is to help farmers earn more through creating cottage industries.
Hand-made tobacco paper is mainly used for all-purpose cards, stationeries, invitations, gift wrappers, bags among others.
But imagine if tobacco paper is industrialized further. Around† 156 kg of tobacco stalks per would yield 60 kg or pulp this means almost 0.3 cubic metres of wood could be saved from forests from being converted to paper.
Though more research is needed on whether tobacco paper can compete in the commercial paper industry on an industrialized level, the prospects still are too tempting to ignore.
Impact on local industries
A research of James, et al. from PhilRice-Batac demonstrated the use of tobacco scrap before and after transplanting to control harmful snail populations in rice fields. The field test was done in seven municipalities of Ilocos Norte.
The research revealed that weekly use of tobacco scraps significantly reduced the population of golden kuhol from 60 to 90 percent.
“The affected area was minimized by 80 percent and damaged hills by 84 percent. Where farmers’ practice and no treatment were employed, an average 23.39 percent and 4 percent reduction in population were observed, respectively,” the research said.
Rice plants treated with tobacco scraps had better crop stand, greener leaves, and taller plants, the study added. The study also showed that fields treated with tobacco scraps produced the highest yield per hectare (7.37 t/ha) compared to farmers’ practice (6.38 t/ha) and no control (6.19 t/ha).
The country’s aqua-culture has also found a promising use for tobacco dust as it has been proven effective as molluscide against snails and other fish pond pest but also enhances the growth of the “lablab”, a pond fish-food.
Again, tobacco dust leaves no residue and is a perfect organic alternative in aquaculture farms. According to the NTA, tobacco dust acts swiftly to protect fish and its eggs from predatory snails and other creatures that exist in ponds and fish pens.
The NTA conducted field testing in fishponds in Bulacan, Pampanga, Bataan, Pangasinan and Ilocos Sur confirmed the validity of the scientific studies on tobacco dust and its benefits.
More initiative for investment, government funding
Hipolito Carlos, a former tobacco contract grower, said that initiatives for tobacco by-products have been seriously pursued by research done by the NTA and private entities.
“The immediate objective was to help local tobacco farmers earn more. While we should commend NTA for all it has done to discover the potentials of tobacco by-products we should also ask government to seriously consider the wider perspective of creating bigger industries on these by-products,” Carlos said.
He shares the opinion of other businessmen in saying that such by-products could even benefit more tobacco farmers and even create bigger industries if there are investments coming in from the private and government sectors.
Carlos said investment on tobacco by-product industries, from the government and private sector, will not threaten the conventional use of tobacco for cigarette production and instead will produce off-shoot industries that can complement the industry. More industries depending on the different parts of tobacco would mean more farmers cultivating high-quality tobacco and more farmers benefiting from more industries.
Carlos said that there is a need for a shift to industrial and commercial approach rather than the small town cottage industry perspective.
For the people involved in the various research and promotion of tobacco by-products, it is not a question of whether or not these products will see their full potential in the wider commercialized market. Rather, it is a question of when government and the private sector investments and developments would come in. They earnestly hope that it will be soon.
http://nashvillepublicradio.org/post/why-tobacco-farmers-robertson-county-are-switching-indigo#stream/0
On one summer morning, David Fulton, left, and Larry Williams inspect a sprig of an indigo plant in Fulton’s field.
Tobacco is still the biggest cash crop in many Tennessee fields, as it’s been for generations.
But farmers are looking for other options that aren’t quite so difficult to grow. And some, like David Fulton in Robertson County, are turning to an unusual crop: indigo — the plant that can be used to dye denim.
Fulton unlocks a gate on the side of a quiet backcountry road. Behind it is a small field bordered by trees. It’s just 4 acres, out of a thousand that he farms.
“OK,” he says. “Let’s go look at some indigo.”
Startup Crop
The first thing to know about indigo plants is that they are, in fact, green. They look like tiny bushes growing in neat rows.
“Evidently, it appears to be doing something right,” Fulton says, eyeing the field. “I don’t really know what it’s supposed to look like, but that right there looks pretty good to me.”
There’s a lot he doesn’t know about indigo yet, including some basic things, like: How do these green plants turn into blue dye?
This is his first year growing indigo, and his neighbor, David Williams, is also growing it for the first time. He points to one of Fulton’s plants.
“I saw a leaf right there somewhere that has some purple in it, some color in it,” Williams says.
“The dye is actually going to come at the bloom,” Fulton says, pointing to where the plants will flower.
“I thought it was the leaf itself,” Williams says.
It turns out, Williams is right. The dye does come from the leaf.
It’s not that these men didn’t do their research. They tried to, Fulton says. There’s just not much information out there about growing indigo. The last time the crop was commercially grown in this part of the world was before the American Revolution — 240 years ago.
A Hard Lifeline
When it comes to tobacco, though, these men are experts.
Despite all the changes in the industry over the past few decades, tobacco is still big business in Robertson County, just north of Nashville. Production has barely dipped since the early ’90s, according to Paul Hart, University of Tennessee’s extension agent in Robertson County.
“None of the young people want to work in tobacco. It’s a nasty job. Every bit of it is hot and nasty.”
Fulton and Williams are both in their 50s, and they’ve worked in tobacco fields since they were kids. It’s paid for mortgages. It’s sent children to college.
Williams says it’s also just part of who they are.
“I’m the fifth generation on my farm,” he says. “Grandfathers, great-grandfathers, raised tobacco.”
It’s easy to get nostalgic about tobacco this time of year, during the harvest. Fulton points out barns where, soon, they’ll cure the leaves they’ve harvested, smoking them with smoldering wood for weeks.
“People will stop and say, ‘My god, your barn’s on fire!’ And I say, ‘No, that’s just part of it,’ ” he says.
“You’ll know the smell when you go by the barn,” Williams adds. “It’s a feeling of, the harvest is over. It’s just a good feeling.”
But the rest of the year, raising tobacco is not particularly fun or easy. It’s a finicky crop, susceptible to diseases, and it’s extremely labor-intensive. Every part of the process is done by hand — from the planting to the harvesting and curing — and this next generation isn’t sticking around to do it.
“The labor doesn’t seem to be out there anymore. None of the young people want to work in tobacco. It’s a nasty job. Every bit of it is hot and nasty,” Williams says. “Can’t blame ’em.”
Easier Alternatives
Labor has gotten more expensive, which cuts into profits. So even though tobacco is what they know, both men have been on the lookout for alternatives — things that are easier to grow and can still make some money.
Then, earlier this year, they heard about a local company called Stony Creek Colors. The startup had developed a method of planting indigo that uses the same equipment as tobacco, Williams says, “so we didn’t have to go out and purchase anything special.”
Stony Creek also created a machine to harvest the crop, and people from the company will come out to the farm and do it themselves. Literally, all these farmers have to do is make sure the indigo stays alive through the season.
The downside: They won’t make as much money as they would selling tobacco. But it’s so much easier, says Sarah Bellos, the founder of Stony Creek.
“We’re not trying to compete on per-acre price basis with tobacco. We are trying to make the margins for the farmer good for growing indigo,” she says.
Her company is four years old and still very much in the startup phase, just trying to prove to investors that the business model works. The natural indigo market barely exists anywhere in the world these days. For the last century, almost all indigo dye has been made synthetically with no farming involved.
But Bellos wants to bring it back. She’s convinced that makers and consumers of high-end jeans will pay more for natural indigo — and at some point, she says, maybe the mass market would too.
“So if farmers can grow them, and we can bring chemical manufacturing jobs back to the U.S., that’s something that’s worth investing in.”
And so far, the company is making it work. A denim manufacturer in North Carolina is buying all of its indigo crop this year. In Tennessee, Stony Creek is still a small operation, with only 10 farmers growing 30 acres of indigo. But Fulton says he knows more people who are already interested.
“I bet I’ve had 50 farmers call,” he says. “It’s been very interesting, no doubt about that.”
So, will indigo replace tobacco? Fulton says, not any time soon. It’s just not lucrative enough.
But he wants the crop to succeed — partly because it would be good for his farm, and partly because it would help his community. Stony Creek will process the indigo dye in a renovated plant down the road, which is creating 50 jobs.
It’s fitting that the renovated plant used to process tobacco.
Zainul Abedin , a fisherman at Chakaria in Cox’s Bazar, worries when the hills erode and come crashing down to fill up the Matamuhuri River.
http://bdnews24.com/environment/2016/08/14/tobacco-processing-gobbles-up-forests-in-coxs-bazar-hills
It adversely affects his income.
But why the hills eroding and chunks of it come crashing down ever so often!
“That happens when you hack down trees on the hills for processing tobacco” Zainul replies to a bdnews24.com question.
“That’s why we don’t get fish near tobacco fields,” he added.
The fisherman said he often fail to catch fish worth even Tk 30 on some days.
Other locals agreed with Zainul and blamed tobacco processing on relentless cutting of trees.
Tobacco and deforestation
A Tobacco Atlas report has blamed tobacco cultivation for 31 percent deforestation in Bangladesh.
Half the forests in south-eastern districts of Bangladesh have been lost to tobacco cultivation in the past century, according to Centre for International Forestry Research.
Chakaria resident ‘Mahbub’ said tobacco cultivation has destroyed the forests on the sides of the rivers Matamuhuri and Sangu.
Mahbub had once been known as ‘Pata Mahbub’ (the word ‘Pata’ denotes tobacco leaf in the area) for introducing tobacco cultivation in the area in the early 1980s.
He said he left tobacco cultivation after experiencing its negative impact on the forests.
“We had countless foxes, deer, monkeys, boars in the forests. Now there is nothing,” Mahbub said.
According to non-government organisation Ubinig, tobacco was cultivated on 4,000 acres of land in Chakaria in 2012.
Tobacco output from two acres of land need 10 tonnes of wood to burn for processing the tobacco leaves.
So around 20,000 tonnes of wood was needed for burning to process the tobacco cultivated that year.
A total of 3,838 acre was used for tobacco cultivation in Cox’s Bazar in 2014-15 fiscal, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics says.
The tobacco planters have not left the hilly forests next to Chakaria.
The Department of Agricultural Expansion reports tobacco cultivation was introduced in the hilly districts after 1960s.
Anti-tobacco organisation Progga says around 6,000 furnaces to dry up tobacco leaves were set up in Bandarban in 2014.
The organisation, referring to the Export Promotion Bureau, says Bangladesh exported tobacco worth $7 million in 2005-06 fiscal.
The earnings from exporting tobacco rose to $ 47 million in 2013-14 fiscal year, indicating a huge rise in cultivation.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-3667748/British-American-Tobacco-vows-investigate-child-workers-Bangladeshi-farms.html
NEW DELHI, June 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – British American Tobacco (BAT), the world’s second biggest cigarette company, vowed on Thursday to investigate some of its supply farms in Bangladesh after a Swedish campaign group uncovered the use of child workers to grow and process tobacco.
Swedwatch, which surveyed three tobacco farming districts in Bangladesh, said it found child labour was “widespread” in farms supplying BAT and its local subsidiary British American Tobacco Bangladesh, jeopardising their health and education.
“Girls and boys of all ages are responsible for irrigating and leveling the field. Some of them carry loads as well and bring seedlings from the bed to the field,” said the study, which was conducted between July 2015 and May 2016.
“After harvesting, they break the leaves, cut the stems, and help to monitor the kiln temperature while curing.”
Swedwatch said children were not only pulled out of school to work for up to 16 hours a day during the harvest season but were also engaged in tasks that exposed them to green tobacco plants, dust from tobacco and smoke from kiln drying.
Group Head of Corporate Affairs at British American Tobacco Simon Cleverly told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the company had investigated the report’s findings, including allegations of unfair contracts to farmers, but found no evidence of any human rights violations.
He said BAT’s investigations were consistent with the findings of several independent studies commissioned by BAT to look into tobacco growing and rural livelihoods in Bangladesh that found the company has a positive socio-economic impact.
But Cleverly said BAT, the maker of Lucky Strike and Dunhill cigarettes, has asked Swedwatch for details of the farm locations where children were said to be working so the company can investigate further and act if necessary.
“We believe this report presents a misleading and inaccurate view of our tobacco leaf farming supply chain in Bangladesh, a country where we have a long-standing history of working with farmers and the government for mutual benefit,” said Cleverly.
“I FEEL WEAK”
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), over five million children aged between 5 and 17 years are engaged in some kind of employment in Bangladesh.
For although Bangladesh laws set a minimum working age of 14, poverty causes many families to send children to work.
But UNICEF estimates 93 percent of child labourers work in the informal sector, saying this makes enforcement of labour laws virtually impossible.
Almost half of working children are believed employed in the farm sector, which is considered the most dangerous in terms of work-related fatalities and occupational diseases due to sharp tools, dangerous machinery, and use of agro chemicals.
The Swedwatch report said children working in Bangladesh’s tobacco farms in Bandarban, Chakoria and Lalmonirhat districts were no exception and faced nicotine absorption through the skin as well as pesticide exposure due to no protective equipment.
“I cannot sleep or eat regularly and that leads to other health problems. I feel weak,” said one boy, 16, in the report.
“When I work in front of the kiln, my eyes burn, I feel pain in my chest and I cough a lot,” he added, describing the process of curing tobacco leaves which involves heating them in a kiln.
The study, based on interviews with over 150 people including farmers, government officials, community leaders and activists, also found tobacco work had an adverse impact on schooling and future prospects as children were pulled out of class to work.
“The report urges BAT and other tobacco companies to remove the ‘smokescreens’ over their supply chains by publishing impact assessments and third party audits, and to take immediate action to protect people and the environment,” Swedwatch said.
(Reporting by Nita Bhalla, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/06/24/farmers-reject-fctc-ratification.html
Tobacco farmers in Sumber Pinang village, Pakusari district, Jember, East Java, have expressed their opposition to the government’s plan to ratify the UN Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), saying they lacked options if forced to transition to other crops.
After years of resisting ratification of the UN convention, the Health Ministry recently announced that the government would formally adopt the convention after Idul Fitri.
A farmer, Abdurahman, said he was worried about the enforcement of the plan, as demand for the Kasturi variety of tobacco in Jember had dropped dramatically from last year.
While tobacco fields in the region covered a total area of 6,400 hectares in 2015, the planting area this year, according to estimates, has shrunk to only 4,700 ha. Reduced planting activity is also attributed to declining interest of farmers in growing tobacco.
“This is because of the continued intense interference of foreign NGOs on tobacco issues and in the tobacco industry in Indonesia,” said the leader of the Jember Kasturi Tobacco Growers Association.
He was referring to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which revealed that thousands of children in Indonesia were exposed to hazardous conditions on tobacco farms where they work as laborers.
According to Abdurahman, various tobacco-related regulations adopted in line with global norms are not suitable to conditions on tobacco plantations in the country. He cited the ban against children employed in tobacco growing activities as an alien concept in Indonesia. He said tobacco farming in Indonesia would slowly die due to such regulations, because the younger generation would no longer be interested in planting tobacco, and domestic tobacco demand would be met by imports.
Suwarno, another Kasturi tobacco farmer from the village of Nogosari in Balung district, Jember, expressed similar concerns.
Various strict rules had been applied by companies wishing to buy tobacco from farmers. The farmers had to abide by the rules if they wanted their tobacco to be bought.
“I totally agree with East Java Governor Soekarwo’s stance to firmly reject intervention by foreign NGOs that are making efforts to regulate the marketing of tobacco in Indonesia,” said Suwarno.
Last week in Surabaya, Soekarwo strongly rejected efforts by NGOs lobbying the government to ratify the FCTC. He asked the foreign NGOs not to interfere in tobacco issues in Indonesia, especially in East Java.
“No, no. They don’t have any business here. Tobacco is the life of the people of East Java. Why should we be regulated by foreign NGOs. Let foreign NGOs take care of their own matters,” said Soekarwo.
Indonesian Tobacco Farmers Association (APTI) head Soeseno has also expressed support for Soekarwo. According to him, within the guidelines of the FCTC, there were some excessive provisions that could shut down the entire tobacco industry in Indonesia.
“If Indonesia ratifies the FCTC, we have to switch from planting tobacco. The wellbeing of around 2 million tobacco farmers and millions of tobacco workers across Indonesia will be threatened. Up until now, there is no other commodity with profits like tobacco, and generally, only tobacco can be grown on dry land during the dry season,” said Soeseno.
He deemed FCTC a hidden agenda by foreign parties to kill off the tobacco industry relied upon by more than 6 million people in Indonesia. The tobacco industry was the third largest contributor to taxes in 2015 at Rp 173.9 trillion (US$13.2 billion).
Dear Friend,
Every day, hundreds of thousands of children go to work on tobacco farms around the world.
Working in hazardous conditions and for long hours, many miss out on their childhood and education. Many work unpaid, have no rights, and are unaware of the health risks they face.
They become exposed to toxic chemicals through direct contact with crops. In the USA, children as young as twelve are still legally permitted to work up to 50-60 hours per week in tobacco farming. Nearly three in four children who work on tobacco farms in the United States experience green tobacco sickness – acute nicotine poisoning that occurs when workers absorb nicotine through their skin.
In India, children as young as four work in the Beedi industry, trapped in slavery and forced to make hundreds of hand-rolled cigarettes each day.
Today, World Day Against Child Labor, we are helping Human Rights Watch highlight the shocking truth of how children are exploited and harmed by the global tobacco industry.
This short film tells the story of children who work on tobacco farms in Indonesia.
http://phys.org/news/2016-06-links-tobacco-microbials-carcinogens.html
University of Kentucky researchers have found a link between changes in microbial communities on tobacco leaves and the development of carcinogens during the curing process.
A team of researchers led by Luke Moe, UK associate professor, found that the microbial community on the tobacco leaf changes during the air-curing process, especially during high heat and high humidity. Under these conditions, microbes that convert nitrate to nitrite appear to increase. Nitrate to nitrite conversion is key in forming carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamines, referred to as TSNAs.
In the field, tobacco contains really low TSNA levels. For many years, University of Kentucky tobacco researchers and tobacco farmers in the state have noticed that hot, humid conditions increase the amount of TSNAs that develop during curing. To attempt to minimize the amount of TSNAs formed during curing, farmers open barn doors to increase airflow and lower humidity levels in the barn.
“If we can understand or manipulate the microbial community so that those microbes responsible for TSNA formation are absent from the leaf when it goes into the barn, we could potentially minimize TSNA formation regardless of curing condition,” said Moe, a microbial ecologist in the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
For this study, Moe worked with Audrey Law and Colin Fisher from the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, and Anne Jack with the Kentucky Tobacco Research and Development Center. Fisher has designed a curing structure in which he can control humidity and temperature. For this study, researchers cured tobacco in the structure at temperatures ranging between 60 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit with humidity levels between 60 and 90 percent.
They reported their findings in the academic journal Microbial Ecology.
The researchers are conducting a follow-up study to examine the microbial communities present on tobacco leaves in the field and then characterize population shifts every two weeks during curing. This will allow them to better understand when microbial community changes are occurring and to pinpoint when these detrimental bacteria begin to increase on the leaf.
Exposed to Harmful Nicotine, Pesticides
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/05/25/indonesia-child-tobacco-workers-suffer-firms-profit
A young girl ties tobacco leaves onto sticks to prepare them for curing in East Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara.
© 2015 Marcus Bleasdale for Human Rights Watch
(Jakarta) – Thousands of children in Indonesia, some just 8 years old, are working in hazardous conditions on tobacco farms, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Indonesian and multinational tobacco companies buy tobacco grown in Indonesia, but none do enough to ensure that children are not doing hazardous work on farms in their supply chains.
The 119-page report, “‘The Harvest is in My Blood’: Hazardous Child Labor in Tobacco Farming in Indonesia,” documents how child tobacco workers are exposed to nicotine, handle toxic chemicals, use sharp tools, lift heavy loads, and work in extreme heat. The work could have lasting consequences for their health and development.
Companies should ban suppliers from using children for work that involves direct contact with tobacco, and the Indonesian government should regulate the industry to hold them accountable.
“Tobacco companies are making money off the backs and the health of Indonesian child workers,” said Margaret Wurth, children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report. “Tobacco companies shouldn’t contribute to the use of hazardous child labor through their supply chains.”
Indonesia is the world’s fifth-largest tobacco producer, with more than 500,000 tobacco farms. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that more than 1.5 million children, ages 10 to 17, work in agriculture in Indonesia. Human Rights Watch could not find any official estimates of the number of children working in tobacco farming.
Human Rights Watch conducted field research for the report in four Indonesian provinces, including the three responsible for almost 90 percent of the country’s annual tobacco production: East Java, Central Java, and West Nusa Tenggara. The report is based on interviews with 227 people, including 132 child tobacco workers, ages 8 to 17.
Most started working by age 12 throughout the growing season on small plots of land farmed by their families or neighbors.
Half the children interviewed reported nausea, vomiting, headaches, or dizziness, all symptoms consistent with acute nicotine poisoning from absorbing nicotine through their skin. The long-term effects have not been studied, but research on smoking suggests that nicotine exposure during childhood and adolescence may affect brain development.
Thirteen-year-old “Ayu” said she vomits every year while harvesting tobacco on farms in her village near Garut, West Java: “I was throwing up when I was so tired from harvesting and carrying the [tobacco] leaf. I threw up so many times.”
Many child tobacco workers said they mixed and applied pesticides and other chemicals. Pesticide exposure has been associated with long-term and chronic health effects, including respiratory problems, cancer, depression, neurologic deficits, and reproductive health problems. “Argo,” a 15-year-old worker in Pamekasan, East Java, said he felt suddenly ill when applying a pesticide to his family’s farm: “Once I was vomiting. It was when it was planting time, and I didn’t use the mask, and the smell was so strong, I started throwing up.” Some children were also exposed to pesticides when other workers applied chemicals in the fields where they were working, or in nearby fields.
© 2015 Marcus Bleasdale for Human Rights Watch
Few of the children interviewed, or their parents, understood the health risks or were trained on safety measures. The Indonesian government should carry out a massive education campaign to promote awareness of the health risks to children of work in tobacco farming, Human Rights Watch said.
Most of the children interviewed worked outside of school hours, but Human Rights Watch found that work in tobacco farming interfered with schooling for some children. “Sari,” 14, from Magelang, Central Java, said she dreamed of becoming a nurse, but she stopped attending school after sixth grade to help support her family.
The largest companies operating in Indonesia include three Indonesian tobacco product manufacturers – PT Djarum, PT Gudang Garam Tbk, and PT Nojorono Tobacco International – and two companies owned by multinational tobacco companies – PT Bentoel Internasional Investama, owned by British American Tobacco, and PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna Tbk, owned by Philip Morris International. Other Indonesian and multinational companies also purchase tobacco grown in Indonesia.
Human Rights Watch shared its findings with 13 companies, and 10 responded. None of the four Indonesian companies provided a detailed or comprehensive response, and the largest two, Djarum and Gudang Garam, did not respond despite repeated attempts to reach them.
Since 2013, Human Rights Watch has met and corresponded with representatives of several multinational tobacco companies regarding their child labor policies and practices. Human Rights Watch previously documented work by children on United States tobacco farms, and urged tobacco companies to take concrete steps to eliminate hazardous child labor in their supply chains globally. Some have adopted new protections for child workers, but none have policies sufficient to ensure that all children in their supply chains are protected.
Under human rights norms, tobacco companies have a responsibility to ensure that the tobacco they purchase was not produced with hazardous child labor, Human Rights Watch said.
Most tobacco in Indonesia is bought and sold on the open market through traders and intermediaries, with the tobacco often passing through many hands before purchase by national or multinational companies. However, some farmers are under contract with individual companies.
The multinational companies that responded to Human Rights Watch prioritize direct contracting in their supply chains. Yet all also purchase tobacco on the open market, and none trace where open market tobacco was produced, and under what conditions.
Human Rights Watch could not find any evidence that the Indonesian companies take steps to prevent child labor in their supply chains, and they did not correspond in detail or meet with Human Rights Watch.
“When tobacco companies don’t even know where the tobacco they purchase has come from, there’s no way they can ensure children haven’t put their health at risk to produce it,” Wurth said.
Under Indonesian law, 15 is the minimum age for work, and children ages 13 to 15 may only do light work that does not interfere with their schooling or harm their health and safety. Children under 18 are prohibited from doing hazardous work, including in environments with harmful chemical substances. Any work involving direct contact with tobacco should be considered prohibited under this provision, due to the risk of nicotine exposure, Human Rights Watch said.
Indonesia has come under international scrutiny for failing to protect children from the dangers of smoking. Though Indonesian law prohibits the sale of tobacco products to children, nearly 4 million children, ages 10 to 14, become smokers each year, and at least 239,000 children under 10 have started smoking. More than 40 million Indonesian children under 15 are exposed to secondhand smoke.
Indonesia is one of only a few countries that has not signed or ratified the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a global public health treaty aimed at protecting the population from the consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke. Indonesia should sign and ratify the treaty without delay, Human Rights Watch said.
“The government should do much more to protect children from the dangers of tobacco consumption,” Wurth said. “But Indonesia’s child tobacco workers are hidden victims, and they urgently need protection too.”