Recently, a young girl named Saray Cambray Alvarez, has come forward expressing her concerns about the safety of her workplace. At only thirteen years of age, Saray wakes up every morning for her twelve hour shift, only to deal with the horrid side effects of working in the tobacco fields. Nausea, vomiting, dizziness and irregular heart rates, caused by exposure to nicotine dripping from leaves, are simply a select few of the threats that loom over the heads of not only Saray, but many of the other teenagers working in these fields. On top of this, workers are often deprived of water for hours in 90 plus temperatures, before crews arrive with water jugs for rehydration. This is work much too dangerous for children under the age of eighteen, whose nervous systems and reproductive systems continue to develop. On a daily basis young children are struggling to breathe from over exposure to pesticides and harmful chemicals. Although many businesses deny these allegation’s, several teenagers have come forward expressing the same concerns. Bottom line is that many tobacco growers are praying upon families in need of money, many of whom are immigrants or children of migrant workers. This tactic is morally wrong and astonishingly damaging. It is the onus of the U.S government to implement regulatory policies in order to protect its young citizens.
Source of Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/business/just-13-and-working-risky-12-hour-shifts-in-the-tobacco-fields.html?_r=0