The Tobacco Industry: A Hindrance to the Elimination of Child Labor

An estimated 1.3 million children work in tobacco production, especially in tobacco farming where they risk getting nicotine poisoning, are exposed to harmful pesticides and miss out on a full education. The industry’s unfair business practices perpetuate poverty among tobacco farmers, indirectly encouraging child labor in its supply chain. Although this problem is longstanding and widespread, the industry engages in corporate social responsibility campaigns that deflect blame and paint itself as part of the solution, instead of what it really is: a perpetrator of the problem.

In this brief, STOP exposes the impact of labor on children, root causes of child labor in tobacco farming, methods the industry uses to evade culpability and more.