Focus on Tobacco: Farmworkers Suffer Occupational Poisoning
Author: Student Action with Farmworkers
Date Published: 1998
There is much attention paid to day to the negative effects tobacco has had on consumers. Farmworkers who handle the tobacco plant in the filed are not immune, however, to the harmful effects of the tobacco leaf. Above and beyond the widespread health problems farmworkers face from pesticide exposure, many suffer from a condition unique to the tobacco fields: green tobacco sickness. Though not a new problem, GTS was first documented in tobacco workers in Florida in 1970. It was found that nicotine, the major active ingredient in tobacco, is a water-soluble chemical which is easily absorbed by cultivators' bodies while they handle wet tobacco leaves. Nicotine enters workers' bodies through their skin, lungs, and gastrointestinal tracts.
Date Published: 1998
There is much attention paid to day to the negative effects tobacco has had on consumers. Farmworkers who handle the tobacco plant in the filed are not immune, however, to the harmful effects of the tobacco leaf. Above and beyond the widespread health problems farmworkers face from pesticide exposure, many suffer from a condition unique to the tobacco fields: green tobacco sickness. Though not a new problem, GTS was first documented in tobacco workers in Florida in 1970. It was found that nicotine, the major active ingredient in tobacco, is a water-soluble chemical which is easily absorbed by cultivators' bodies while they handle wet tobacco leaves. Nicotine enters workers' bodies through their skin, lungs, and gastrointestinal tracts.
