New Report Highlights Child Tobacco Farm Worker Dangers

(AP Photo/Ed Reinke, File)

A new report suggests hundreds of children working on U.S. tobacco farms are getting hurt and getting sick.

FOX News Radio’s Eben Brown has the story from Miami:

Kids working U.S. tobacco fields are getting maimed by farm equipment and poisoned by pesticides and nicotine, says Human Rights Watch. But nobody’s done anything wrong.

Wurth: “Most of what we documented for this report was perfectly legal under U.S. law.”

Margaret Wurth co-authored the study, saying kids working all sorts of farms have no protection– not physical nor legal.

Wurth: “At the age of 12, a child can work unlimited hours on a farm of any size with their parents permission. And, for most other jobs, kids have to be 16.”

She says both the industry and government need to make changes.

Eben Brown, FOX News Radio.