Child labour: the tobacco industry's smoking gun

(guardian.co.uk) ... Until the 1980s, much of the world's tobacco was grown in the US. Today, however, about 85% of worldwide production comes from the global south, where tobacco child labour is a major problem, according to a 2010 US Department of Labour report (pdf).
"In any developing country where tobacco is grown, you find child labour starting at the age of five," says Marty Otañez, a researcher at the University of California's tobacco control research and education centre.
Malawi, which has the highest number of child labourers in Africa, is a key offender. Health issues aside, children are also financially exploited. Continued

Photo: Field-workers, Goodrich Tobacco Farm, near Gildersleeve, Conn. See Report, L.W. Hine. Location: Gildersleeve, Connecticut. Lewis Hine, 1917 (Library of Congress).