Tobacco Industry's Issues - Essay Example

The Tobacco Industry The overwhelming increase in the use of tobacco products is an indication of the fact that this industry is not getting affected by recent downsizing and global economic crisis. Millions of people are working in this industry and trying to make ends meet by putting in a lot of effort in farms. Although innumerable people are associated with this industry but the fact remains that there are several strings attached to this entire process of tobacco cultivation. Not only can you find people facing several health issues but other problems are also associated with it. For instance, child labor is only small problem associated with it. When you will delve more into the details pertaining to tobacco industry, you will find that the majority of tobacco workers are migrant workers. Although often gone unnoticed by consumers, those engaged in the growth and preparation of tobacco and tobacco-related products are often exposed to many health hazards. Because tobacco is a global industry, tobacco workers all over the world are exposed to such risks. Tobacco products: cigarettes, cigars, snuff, and chewing tobacco, are well known to pose a serious environmental health threat both to consumers themselves and, in the case of secondhand smoke, to the people around them. Today, vigorous tobacco control activity around the world focuses on curbing tobacco use and, thus, its health effects on consumers. But the tobacco workers who labor to bring the plant to market face another range of environmental health risks. Also, most of the labor laws don’t really affect these people because most of them live in developing countries where they work on their own family farms. However, it is interesting to note that in the United States, the federal government historically has encouraged tobacco agriculture. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) tobacco price support program sets an annual national quota restricting the amount of tobacco that can be grown to that estimated to meet annual domestic and export demand. For those farmers who hold quota allotments, this policy and an accompanying federal loan program keep market prices artificially high. Quotas can be leased and traded, and in recent years this has resulted in the concentration of quota allotments in fewer hands, creating some large-scale nonfamily farming operations. Here, it is crucial to mention that the federal government is now phasing out support for tobacco farming. As U.S. tobacco consumption declines, the tobacco companies, the largest and most influential of which are multinational corporations, are moving both their production and their marketing efforts overseas (Brown, 2003). The top three companies, Altria, British American Tobacco (BAT), and Japan Tobacco, have built new manufacturing facilities and encouraged the rapid expansion of tobacco agriculture in many countries, notably Brazil, Mexico, India, China, and Malaysia. Two-thirds of the world’s tobacco is grown in just four countries: China, India, Brazil, and the United States. According to Golden Leaf, Barren harvest, a 2001 report by the Washington, D.C., tobacco production in developing countries grew by 128% between 1975 and 1998 (Brown, 2003). Traditionally, independent growers have sold their tobacco at annual auctions where tobacco companies compete to buy from many different growers. Under the auction system, tobacco companies do not always buy directly from farmers, but work through intermediary leaf brokers. Recently tobacco companies have begun to shift to a more vertically integrated system (Brown, 2003). Atria subsidiary Philip Morris USA is encouraging farmers to sign contracts called “partnering agreement.” The contracts eliminate the leaf brokers and allow the growers to bring their crop to the company at their convenience rather than at a preset time as under the auction system. The contract system is predicted by many to further reduce the economic stature and autonomy of growers. As growers become more dependent on single tobacco companies, they are under more pressure to follow the companies’ specifications as to pesticide use and other cultivation protocols. And even under the auction system, in developing countries there is very close collaboration between the tobacco companies and the leaf brokers. Both provide loans, fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, and other materials to growers. Although there are international agreements and conventions affecting the tobacco industry, none directly address tobacco workers’ environmental health issues. In 1999 the World Health Organization (WHO) began work on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). For the 192 member countries of the WHO, the FCTC would encourage and supplement national tobacco control policies in the areas of advertising and sponsorship, package warnings and labeling, taxes, and smuggling. The CTC underwent its last round of negotiations in February 2003 and is scheduled to be signed at the World Health Assembly in May 2003 (Brown, 2003). On the other hand, according to the tobacco control in developing countries, about 33 million people worldwide work in tobacco cultivation. Tobacco workers are vulnerable to the same kinds of injuries and diseases encountered by any other agricultural worker. For example, Accidents with farm machinery can be considered as one of the concerns. In fact, agriculture is the second most dangerous occupation in the U. S., with a death rate of 22.7 people per 100,000 workers, according to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most farm-related accidents are caused by machinery, with tractor accidents accounting for a high rate of fatalities (Davis, 2004). Heat exhaustion is another common threat faced by the tobacco workers. Heat Exhaustion (heat fainting), due to dehydration or low blood pressure from physical exertion. Results in headache, tiredness, nausea, dizziness, clammy skin, heavy sweating and, sometimes, fainting (Workers Safety: Preventing Heat Stress Disorders). In addition to heat exhaustion, Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS) is another pressing issue for workers, especially for immigrant workers. The illness results from absorbing nicotine from tobacco leaves through the skin. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, headaches, breathing difficulties and changes in blood pressure and heart rate (Patton, 2001)."It's a problem that happens every year. We're seeing some pretty sick people," said Dr. Susan Fister, director of the Bluegrass Farmworker Health Center in Richmond. One man apparently had a heart attack from a combination of heat exhaustion and nicotine poisoning, Fister said. These are most common issues associated with tobacco cultivation. But the most controversial and serious environmental health issue in tobacco agriculture is pesticide use. Pesticides are applied to tobacco several times over a growing season. According to the 1984 book Environmental Management in Tropical Agriculture, up to 16 applications of pesticides are required by BAT of its Kenyan contract farmers. There are no firm figures on the amounts of pesticides that tobacco workers are exposed to, but tobacco farming is labor intensive; deflowering is often done by hand, and most farms are not very mechanized. According to “A Poison Crop – Tobacco in Brazil,” an article published in the June 1998 issue of the Global Pesticide Campaigner, tobacco farming requires an estimated 3,000 hours of work per year per hectare, compared with only 265 hours for maize. More time in the field means more chances for exposure. And protective gear is not always practical, particularly in the developing world, where many tobacco farms are in subtropical climates. For those farmers, wearing the gear could mean suffering heat stroke. Although there are no pesticides that are used exclusively on tobacco, certain pesticides are used very heavily. According to Golden Leaf, Barren Harvest, aldicarb, chlorpyrifos, and 1.3-dichloropropene (1, 3-D) are commonly used on tobacco around the world. Aldicarb is a systemic insecticide used on soil nematodes, insects and mites. It is acutely toxic, causing dizziness, diarrhea, vomiting, blurred vision, temporary paralysis of the extremities, difficulty breathing, and excessive perspiration. Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphate insecticide, a class of compounds that interfere with never impulses. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, chlorpyrifos exposure symptoms include headache, blurred vision, excessive salivation, muscle weakness, and sudden change in hear rate. 1, 3-D is primarily used on soil nematodes. Breathing high does can produce respiratory irritation, nausea, headache, and fatigue. The Department of Health and Human Services reasonably anticipates 1, 3_D to be a carcinogen. An organophosphate insecticide, acephate can cause symptoms such as twitching, headache, salivation, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, and death, according to the National Pesticide Information network at Oregon State University in Corvallis. Acephate is not considered highly toxic in low to moderate doses but is classified b the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a possible human carcinogen. Maleic hydrazide is commonly applied to discourage offshoot growth. It is not considered acutely toxic or carcinogenic by the EPA, but is a skin and eye irritant (Brown, 2003). On the other hand, Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS) symptoms are very similar to those of pesticide poisoning, making diagnosis of either more difficult. GTS is essentially nicotine poisoning through dermal absorption. Nicotine, a water-soluble alkaloid, collects in dew and rainwater on the leaves of tobacco plants in the fields. As workers move among the wet plants, they absorb nicotine directly through their skin. The symptoms of GTS include nausea and vomiting, headache, dizziness, blood pressure fluctuation, and abdominal cramping. The symptoms usually occur within a few hours of exposure and subside in one to three days. In a project funded by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a research team including Wake Forest University investigators Tom Arcury and Sara Quandt investigated the best way to prevent GTS among migrant tobacco workers during the 1999 growing season. They found that the best method was for workers to wear clothing with long sleeves and pants and to change out of wet clothes as soon as possible. In 1993, NIOSH issued a warning to tobacco harvesters to wear protective clothing such as chemical resistant gloves, aprons, and rain gear after 47 people sought emergency care for GTS in a five county area of Kentucky over a two-month period (Brown, 2003). The number of people around the world using tobacco is currently increasing, not decreasing. The World Health Organization estimates that, if current trends continue, the number of smokers around the world will increase from the current 1.1 billion to 1.6 billion in 2025. In countries where tobacco control is quite strong, as in Thailand, tobacco use is declining by about one percent a year. But in most developing countries, the population is increasing by more than one percent a year. If population growth is greater than the decline in tobacco use, than the number of tobacco users will increase. That effect is further enhanced by the fact that, in many developing countries, most of the population is under age 15. Those who are quitting tobacco use or dying, the middle aged and older, represent a much smaller portion of the population. So the pool of potential tobacco users is growing even faster than the population. The question, then, is not how quickly will tobacco workers lose their jobs, but how many years it will take before the tobacco industry stops growing. It is highly unlikely that anyone currently alive will lose their job due to tobacco control and the eventual slow decline in consumption will allow ample time for farmers and others to seek alternatives to tobacco. Meanwhile, mechanization of cigarette production has meant that jobs are shrinking within the industry not due to reduced consumption, but due to greater efficiency in production. Next, workers in the tobacco industry would benefit if spending patterns switched from tobacco to other products, as this would potentially create better paid and safer jobs in new sectors. Workers generally receive extremely low wages, as low as 35 cents a day to roll bidis in India, and 6 cents for 5 hours work in one site in Bangladesh. Since adult men refuse to do such low paid work, women and children are often recruited. Due to the long work hours, children are forced to drop out of school. In some bidi-rolling areas, men take multiple wives and force them to roll bidis, keeping the profits and refusing to care for the women when they become unable to continue the work. Far from being well off from tobacco farming, 52% of children in one tobacco growing district in Kenya are malnourished. In Malawi, tobacco farmers remain poor despite their many years growing the crop. Due to the high cost of inputs, they may even go into debt if crops fail or the auction price is low. In addition to the low wages, common not only to many of those growing and producing tobacco, but to many of those selling it as well, are the health threats faced by tobacco workers. Tobacco workers become ill from exposure to green tobacco while picking the leaves, from tobacco products. In this case, tobacco field workers are at risk of cancer, infertility and Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS), a form of nicotine poisoning. Once nicotine is absorbed into the blood stream through the skin, it travels to the brain, where it can affect the nervous and gastrointestinal system. Also, the inhuman postures in which bidi workers are expected to remain for hours. All of these exposures can result in poor health that reduces the productivity of workers. Combined with illiteracy from lack of school attendance, tobacco work can contribute to lifelong poverty for present and future generations. On the other hand, if tobacco consumption declined, people would buy other goods instead. Those other goods could include food items that would both benefit their and families’ health, and provide the former tobacco laborers with potentially higher paid and less dangerous, grueling work. The World Bank has calculated that in many countries, this switch in expenditures would result in a net increase of jobs. Even if the pay of other work were comparable to that of tobacco, if the hours were such that children could attend school, then the cycle of poverty might be broken. In different countries, people have shown that those working in tobacco can actually benefit from switching to other work. Many crops prove more profitable than tobacco, such as roses in Zimbabwe and sunflowers in Bangladesh. Some bidi workers in southern India have discovered that food processing generates far more earnings than bidi work. Given the concentration of wealth from tobacco in a very few transnational companies, it is hardly surprising that in many contexts, other products would be more economically beneficial to the workers (Tobacco and Employment). Child labor is a growing social problem across the globe. Estimates of the number of child workers range from between 100 million and 200 million in the world. Africa has the largest incidents of child labor with an estimated 40 percent of all children between five and fourteen years of age regularly engaged in work . Child labor is prevalent in Africa, especially in the agricultural sector. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that there are more than 23 million child workers in Africa. An unknown number of these are to be found within the tobacco growing sector, which is claimed to employ more people than any other agricultural cash-crop in the world (Elshof 1995). The tobacco sector is in the hot spot these days. Not because approximately 33 million of workers are employed in tobacco growing and early stages of processing of the tobacco. Not because tobacco represent the bulk of agricultural exports and foreign income for poor countries like Malawi and Zimbabwe. Not because tobacco workers live and work under harsh conditions. Not even because a large number of them are children. But because the tobacco product is considered to be unhealthy and dangerous for the consumers. The entrance of children into the “world of work,” is seen as a survival strategy for children and their families. According to Bonnet (1993), children in Africa are unable to attend school because their families cannot afford to pay for their education. The household cannot afford to pay for their children’s education if the cost of schooling is too high and the household income is too low. Inability of households to meet the basic needs of children (education, food, shelter and clothes) in most cases forces children to engage in employment in their effort to improve their conditions and livelihood. The argument is that, poverty does not cause child labor but there is a strong relationship between the two. Thus, child labor is often found in socially and economically communities. Children are most likely to be employed when their labor is cheap. One of the more arguments for the use of child labor has been the issue of cheap labor provided by children as compared to adults ( ). Most of the children are employed on contract basis and in most cases their work is more seasonal as compared to adult that is more permanent. In some instances, children are not paid at all because employers, especially in the domestic and agricultural sector give them accommodation and food. Lastly, children are casually hired and fired, as they are not protected by legislation, it is cost-effective for employers, as they do not have to pay unemployment benefits (Eldring, Nakanyane & Tshoaedi, 2000). Hardworking farmers who cannot make a living turn to child labor. TCC’s 2008 campaign is demanding that farmers get a profit at least 15% above production costs. Up to 2 million Malawians, mostly poor, depend on tobacco and related industries for their income. Virtually all of the up to 900,000 adult growers are “smallholder farmers, tobacco tenants and casual farm workers,” according to a 2006 research paper by the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education (CTCRE). According to the CTCRE study, a minimum of 78,000 children is working on a full or part time basis in the tobacco fields. 45% of the child workers are 10-14 years old. Meanwhile, the tobacco companies have received nearly $40 million in revenues over four years through the use of unpaid child labor in Malawi (Semu-Banda, 2008). While many people currently are employed directly or indirectly from tobacco, their jobs are not threatened by tobacco control. In many countries it will take decades before any significant decline in total tobacco consumption occurs, so there is no threat to those currently employed by tobacco. Moreover, many of those making their living through tobacco would actually benefit from a shift in spending to other products, so that they could find better paying and less grueling jobs elsewhere. There is no question of choosing between what’s best for the economy and what’s best for health: tobacco control will greatly benefit both (Tobacco and Employment). References: Brown, Valerie J.. "Tobacco's profit, workers' loss? (Environews Focus)." 2003. Environmental Health Perspectives. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Apr 29, 2009. JUDY DAVIS, Courier & Press . "BOVINE ESCAPEES GIVEN SANCTUARY." Evansville Courier & Press. Evansville Courier & Press. 2004. HighBeam Research. 29 Apr. 2009 . L.Eldring, S.Nakanyane, M.Tshoaedi. Child Labour in the Tobacco Growing Sector in Africa. 2000. Fafo. Apr 29, 2009. Patton, Janet. "`Green tobacco sickness' affecting migrant workers.(Knight Ridder Newspaper.)." Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service. 2001. HighBeam Research. 29 Apr. 2009 . P.Semu-Banda. Playing with Children's Lives: Big Tobacco in Malawi. Feb 25, 2008. CorpWatch. Apr 29, 2009. “Tobacco and Employment”. PATH Canada. Work for a Better Bangladesh. HealthBridge. Apr 29, 2009. Workers Safety: Preventing Heat Stress Disorders. BCTGM. Apr 29, 2009. Read More