Child labour: the tobacco industry’s smoking gun | Global development | guardian.co.uk
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/sep/14/malawi-child-labour-tobacco-industry
One thing is clear to Olofala already: work comes first, education second. His sister, Ethel, 12, is only in year three. She attends school irregularly because she has to work, or because she is sick. “I cough,” she says. “I have chest pains and headaches. Sometimes it feels like you don’t have enough breath.”
Many of Malawi’s estimated 80,000 child tobacco workers suffer from a disease called green tobacco sickness, or nicotine poisoning. Symptoms include severe headaches, abdominal cramps, muscle weakness, breathing difficulties, diarrhoea and vomiting, high blood pressure and fluctuations in heart rate, according to the World Health Organisation.
Malawi, which has the highest number of child labourers in Africa, is a key offender. Health issues aside, children are also financially exploited. Olofala and Ethel often work 12-hour days, but neither earns a salary. They “help” their parents, who work on one of Kasungu’s 22,000 registered tobacco farms and estates. Other kids receive an average of $0.25 for long hours of unrelenting work.
#travail-enfants #santé #tabac