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in Malawi and beyond, the work of children up to five years are at risk of toxic harvest of snuff

At the height of the harvest season of snuff, lush Malawi, the fields are filled with liquid with young children pick up large sheets of green-yellow. Some may have age on one side.

One of them is five years Olofala, working every day with their parents in rural Kasungu, one of the key districts of the growth in Malawi. When asked if they go to school next year, shrugs.

One thing is clear that Olofala: work comes first, education second. His sister, Ethel, 12, just three years. She attended school irregularly because it has to work, either because they are sick. "I cough," he said. "I have chest pain and headaches. Sometimes it feels like you are short of breath."

These complaints are not uncommon. Many of the 80,000 workers in Malawi's son suffering from a disease called snuff snuff green, or tobacco. Symptoms include severe headache, abdominal pain, muscle weakness, difficulty breathing, diarrhea and vomiting, high blood pressure and heart rate fluctuations, according to the World Health Organization.

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sheet management is largely without protective clothing, workers absorb up to 54 milligrams daily nicotine dissolved by the skin, which is equivalent to the sum of 50 cigarettes, according to 2005 research by Professor Robert McKnight, School of Public Health, University of Kentucky in Lexington. Farm owners regularly plead ignorance of the consequences for health. "I've never heard of touch the leaves of tobacco is dangerous," said Fraston Mkwantha the planting of 15 hectares of snuff in Kasungu District.

At the end of the consumption chain, smokers are constantly reminded of the associated health risks. Most are unaware that, far from harm to themselves, their toxic habit is slowly killing the minor children involved in the production process.

Until the 1980s, many of snuff in the world is grown in the United States. Today, however, about 85% of world production comes from the South, where child labor is a major problem snuff, according to a Labor Department U. S. 2010 (PDF).

"In all developing countries, where it is grown snuff, child labor from the age of five years," said Marty Otanes, a researcher at the University of California, the Research on control of snuff and education center.

Malawi, which has the largest number of working children in Africa, is a key offender. Health issues aside, children are also economically exploited. Ethel Olofala and often work 12 hours a day, but also earns a salary. This "help" their parents, working in a plantation of 22 000 registered and snuff Kasungu States. Other children receive an average of $ 0.25 for unceasing work hours long.

They are certainly the lucky ones, some do not see their money at all. "We have reports that many children who have been attracted to work with promises of good wages. But at the end of the season, all they get is an old sweater," says Grace Masanya, manager Project Plan for the Malawi NGO community rights.

the heart of the problem is the poor economic situation in Malawi. Parents involve their children in economic activities to feed the family.

Over the past decade, the country has become one of the five largest producers of snuff in the world, mainly due to lower tariffs on imports of raw tobacco, cheap labor and lack of regulations. According to the United Nations Statistics Division, over 98% of the leaf from Malawi at low cost is exported, with the EU and U.S. destinations above.

Over 90% of Malawi has taken two leaves of buyers' base, Universal Corporation and Alliance One International, which they sell snuff businesses worldwide. Its main customers are the two largest cigarette manufacturers in the world's largest, Philip Morris (Marlboro) and British American Tobacco (Lucky Strike). Consequently, the snuff of Malawi is in the mix of nearly all cigarettes smoked in the west.

The country is a signatory to the UN and the International Labour Organization (ILO) on child labor, and also has its own legislative framework to prohibit the employment of children under 14 years. So why the government turn a blind eye? The answer is simple: Malawi's economy largely depends on the prize, which represents 70% of export earnings, according to the United Nations for Agriculture and