Workers Compensation: Green Leaf Tobacco Sickness for migrant farm workers

Green tobacco sickness is normally non life threatening. It is a sickness that causes nausea, vomiting, dizziness and can cause dehydration. It commonly affects migrant farm workers who harvest the wet tobacco leaves allowing nicotine to enter through skin pores during the harvesting process. Symptoms will typically last 12 to 48 hours and then dissipate. Father Crosby, a Catholic priest filed a shareholder resolution but withdrew the same when Philip Morris International agreed to develop a training program and materials to distribute to U.S. and international growers.

Tobacco harvesting is a labor-intensive industry. Harvesting leafs is done by hand.

A professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, in North Carolina, has done research on Green Tobacco Sickness. He calls this a work related injury or sickness that has been widely ignored. It's believed this illness to be underreported.  The sickness is also known as Acute Nicotine Poisoning.

To learn more about green tobacco sickness you can visit the National Ag Safety Database and read "Learning about Green Tobacco Sickness: Juan's Experience.  The Lombardi Law Firm blog will carry a longer article tomorrow. Read The Verdict for additional information.

There is also a description at Wikipedia.  Green Tobacco Sickness is defined as " a nicotine-induced illness of tobacco harvest workers characterized by headache, dizziness, vomiting, and prostration, caused by skin contact with wet tobacco leaves. " See the Free Dictionary

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health does have information. An article by the Wall Street Journal drew national attention this otherwise widely known but hardly recognized problem for migrant workers.

Green tobacco sickness 'highly prevalent' in N.C. farm workers. Science Blog, July 2001.

Tackling Green Tobacco Sickness, Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2009

"While typically not life-threatening, green tobacco sickness is a debilitating illness that causes nausea, vomiting, dizziness and, in severe cases, dehydration. It afflicts tobacco workers when nicotine on moist tobacco leaves seeps through their pores as they hand-harvest the leaves. The symptoms typically last 12 to 48 hours."

"More attention is being paid to the illness partly because the nature of tobacco production has changed. Increasingly in the U.S., tobacco is grown on larger farms, rather than the small family farms that once dominated the industry. That means more migrant workers are picking tobacco for longer periods of time, increasing their exposure."

Short description: green tobacco sickness transient, recurring nicotine poisoning in tobacco harvesters.

There is also information available at http://www.tobacco.org/news/280837.html, tobacco news and information.

For a different point of view about th tobacco settlement see the video below.