HEALTH RISKS MALAWI
The health risks to workers growing tobacco are very high. The workers, rarely have access to
protective clothing and absorb nicotine through their skin - equal to smoking 50 cigarettes a day. As a
result of this, many suffer from Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS), which is also called nicotine
poisoning. Symptoms include abdominal pains, headaches, muscle weakness, breathlessness and
coughing fits. It is common to find children working on the tobacco plantations as their families are
poor and they need the money. The health effects can be worse for children as they are small.
Information sheet: Tobacco and child labour in Malawi
Malawi began exporting tobacco in 1893, 2 years after Britain set up a colonial government in what
was known as Nyasaland. During the 1970’s, tobacco production globally shifted from developed
countries to developing countries, and intensification of tobacco production in Malawi followed.
Today, tobacco is grown primarily in family-owned smallholder farms and in tobacco estates. Tenant
farmers, contracted by the landowner to cultivate the crop for one year at a time, are supplied with
agricultural inputs, food and other basic materials in return for labour and a final payment. The cost of
the inputs and other materials are deducted from the final payment. Usually, all members of tenant
farmer families, including children, work in tobacco-growing.
The tenancy system may create the impression that children do not work. However, in reality, fathers,
or the contract holders, have to rely on the work of their wives and children in order to provide an
income which can sustain the most minimum of living conditions.
The involvement of children in tobacco production is extensive. While not technically or formally
employed, children work alongside their parents in all activities of tobacco farming including in the
use of pesticides and other hazardous tasks. While some of these are viewed as training, a large
proportion of the children miss out on schooling. Children above nine years of age are heavily
involved in tasks like clearing fields, making nursery beds and watering nurseries, and picking and
transporting tobacco.
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