Snuff industry in Indonesia employs children who are poisoned by nicotine

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Thousands of children working in the industry snuff in Indonesia, one of the most important in the world, have suffered nicotine poisoning and have been exposed to pesticides, according to a report released Wednesday that advocates chains traceable supply serve to discourage child labor.

The report published by Human Rights Watch, stated that many Indonesian children working on farms snuff-most on the largest island of the country, Java- suffer from nausea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness that could be signs that nicotine has seeped into your skin.

According to the report, children, who often work without any protection, are exposed to pesticides and face additional dangers of carrying out heavy work in an extreme climate with sharp tools.

Margaret Wurth, field researcher of children's rights at Human Rights Watch and one of the report's authors, said in an interview in Jakarta that "children handled snuff with their hands and skin soaks them".

The report, entitled "The harvest is in the blood", asks snuff companies, both national and international, discard producers who use child labor.

Meanwhile, Indonesia is putting its palm oil industry, the world's largest, under the same kind of scrutiny to ensure that the oil they produce has a sustainable origin and does not contribute to the destruction of the jungle. The government, major palm oil producers and industry associations have joined that effort, but is still in development.

Most of Indonesia snuff sold in the free market and it is almost impossible to determine where it has been produced. Indonesia is the fifth largest producer of snuff.

Agriculture, including small farms and family farms, is the country's most important economic activity. The International Labour Organization estimates that a half million children work in this industry.

Under the law, children between 13 and 15 may work, but must perform "light work" in snuff plantations outside school hours. Research by Human Rights Watch was developed during the harvest seasons and harvesting on the islands of Java and Lombok in 2014 and 2015 and, according to Wurth, he found that there were children up to eight years doing heavy work.

Almost all farms producing snuff in Indonesia, more or less half a million, are familiar and have less than 10 square kilometers in size according to the report, which also notes that most adults also develop risky labor practices. "No training or health education," Wurth said.

Moreover, the researcher said that most children working in the industry of snuff in Indonesia do not go to local health centers when they get sick, which makes it difficult to determine whether the number of people suffering from illness reaches thousands or tens of thousands. "We do not know what the impact on long-term health."

Human Rights Watch said that shared their findings with 13 companies in Indonesia and several multinational companies working in the country and received responses from 10. None of the Indonesian companies gave a detailed response and two of them did not respond to questions from the organization.