“The anti-Indigenous use of commercial tobacco harms the planet and its people”

… tobacco farms across these sweltering Southern states are sites of dehumanizing labor practices…

The tobacco industry largely remains untouchable, inoculated from more stringent regulation by hefty lobbying…

…harvesting tobacco remains dangerous work with few protections…For instance, children as young as 12 can work alongside family members…

…advocates like Arcury have sounded the alarm on labor conditions for tobacco farmworkers, especially regarding a form of acute nicotine poisoning called green tobacco sickness, or GTS…

…GTS will affect at least 25% of tobacco field workers at some point in the harvesting season…since many farms still use hand-picking techniques rather than machinery to harvest the delicate leaves, there’s ample opportunity for workers to contract the illness…

Thousands of workers enter the U.S. each year to harvest tobacco, the majority of whom are migrants from Mexico…migrant workers typically work more than 12 hours a day and are often forced to live in unsanitary, unhealthy conditions…

…the harvest takes place at the height of summer, so heatstroke is also a major concern…

…workers experience retaliation for asserting their rights, they only get paid for the hours they work…