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The Child Labor Coalition, Human Rights Watch, International Labor Rights Forum, and NC Field recently joined together at a congressional briefing to share their perspectives on putting a stop to child labor in the dangerous tobacco industry in the United States and abroad, in honor of World Day Against Child Labor.\u00a0Norma Flores-Lopez, the governance and collaboration and development manager of\u00a0East Coast Migrant Head Start<\/a>, the chair of Domestic Issues Committee of the\u00a0Child Labor Coalition<\/a>, and a former child laborer herself, was the moderator for the event. Four panelists were featured at the event to express their desire to combat exploitative child labor in the tobacco industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Celia Ortiz, a tobacco worker from the age of 11 to 19 in North Carolina, gave a moving speech. Ortiz bravely described a typical day in the tobacco field as a teen. This included waking up at 5 a.m. to go blindly into work without any proper equipment, instructions, or warnings of the hazards of the job.\u00a0<\/p>\n She would work for hours on end, wearing a black trash bag in the summer heat with no water, breaks, or a proper bathroom. Ortiz said, \u201cIt was either you burn to death in the trash bag or you get wet and get sick.\u201d The child laborers working the field with her all wore black trash bags over their clothes to protect themselves from the nicotine absorbing into their skin when the tobacco was wet from condensation. But, this was clearly not adequate protection because Ortiz recalled experiencing Green Tobacco Sickness at least twice each summer. \u201cIt is such a horrible feeling. I can\u2019t even describe it,\u201d said Ortiz about the ailment.<\/p>\n The former child laborer said that she was afraid to speak up about the unfair working circumstances because she would lose her job and not be able to support herself or her family. \u201cI knew it was wrong that there were no bathrooms. I knew it was wrong that they were spraying pesticides around us. But I couldn\u2019t say anything,\u201d recounted Ortiz, who was forced to urinate on the side of the road instead of having a proper bathroom to use.<\/p>\n She said she wanted to prove to the adults that she could do the job without any complaints and that she was a good worker. Ortiz explained that she, like millions of other child laborers worldwide, needed the money and was not old enough to get a job elsewhere in a safer and more regulated environment. Ortiz concluded with, \u201cI\u2019m here today to give you an image of what it\u2019s like. But it\u2019s even worse out there for some other people.\u201d<\/p>\n Zama Coursen-Neff, the executive director of the Children\u2019s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch<\/a>, presented results from the Human Rights Watch report<\/a>, which surveyed 141 child laborers in the U.S. Her organization found that there were children working all aspects of tobacco, including cultivating and harvesting the perilous crop. These kids were forced to work 50 to 60 hours a week in extreme heat with sharp tools and exposed to with pesticides. Three-fourths of these child workers reported getting sick at work, and two-thirds of them experienced acute nicotine poisoning, or otherwise referred to as Green Tobacco Sickness, which occurs when nicotine gets wet and is absorbed through the skin. Those affected by Green Tobacco Sickness recount feeling dizzy and like they \u201cwere going to die.\u201d<\/p>\n Coursen-Neff pointed to a loophole in the Fair Labor Standards Act, which provides no protections for kids working in tobacco. She said, \u201cThere\u2019s no way to make working in tobacco safe for children.\u201d And although some progress has been made in policies that are helping child laborers in tobacco, Coursen-Neff added, \u201cThese policy changes are important. But they are not enough. It is time to close the loopholes that leaves the U.S. behind other countries and leaves kids without protections that others have.\u201d<\/p>\n