Children aged 7-17 laboring on American tobacco farms

US labor laws that are meant to protect child laborers and regulate working conditions make exceptions for agricultural jobs. Therefore, any child aged 12 or older can work on farms for an unlimited number of hours.

The Human Rights Watch reported, after speaking to 141 children, aged 7 to 17, who are working on US tobacco farms, that the under-aged worked a 12-hours day in unsafe conditions, 66% of those interviewed having suffered from tobacco poisoning, reporting symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, headaches and vomiting.

One 13-year-old recounted that: 'On the first day when I was working [chemicals] got on my face a lot and I didn't know until I got home later that my face was burning.'

Poisoning occurs after coming in bare-skin contact with the tobacco plants.

A 2012 attempt to change the US child labor rights for tobacco farms failed to materialize.