Report: Philip Morris using captive child labor to harvest tobacco

Report: Philip Morris using captive child labor to harvest tobacco

news.yahoo.com

Cigarette makers aren't going to enhance their battered public image with this latest bit of news: Tobacco giant Philip Morris International has been using captive child labor in Central Asia to harvest tobacco.

The company, which manufactures the popular Marlboro brand, used child labor and forced labor in contractor-run plantations in Kazakhstan, according to a shocking report by the Human Rights Watch advocacy organization.

(visit the link for the full news article)

maybe just maybe this will be the extra little push you need to quit smoking.

the article goes on to say

Children as young as 10 toiled in the tobacco fields, the report found, and were exposed to dangerous pesticides and hazardous levels of nicotine while missing months of school. The report documented 72 instances of children working in the fields in 2009.

In six cases, employers held their workers in forced or bonded labor by confiscating their passports and birth certificates. They paid the workers one lump sum at the end of the nine-month tobacco season. That payment system plunged workers into debt penury, forcing them to borrow money from the Morris contractors until the end of the growing season. The report also found that the workers were forced to do other farm work and household labor for no pay.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

wow..

PM got thier slaves took by the American Civil War and now they go over seas and get them there.

I won't be smoking anything from Philip Morris any longer... That company needs to be disbanded here in America and thier products boycotted by Americans.

I buy cigarettes made by Native Americans from tobacco grown in America. There are no additives, and no child labor. There are also no taxes and I pay 1/4 the price I would for Marlboros.

Philip Morris List of Brands
Source: Philip Morris Annual Report 2000
Tobacco

Marlboro
Virginia Slims
Merit
Parliament
Benson &Hedges
L&M
Chesterfield
Lark
Cambridge
Basic


That's what they make... I smoke kools so I think I'm alright

Originally posted by darkelf
I buy cigarettes made by Native Americans from tobacco grown in America. There are no additives, and no child labor. There are also no taxes and I pay 1/4 the price I would for Marlboros.

Unless you live on the reservation it's 100% illegal..... sooner or later they'll get ya!

(I've done it too... but I no longer live near NA's)

With all the high taxes they gotta do something to increase profits.

reply to post by darkelf


You're most likely referring to American Spirits, which I also smoke.

They are not, nor have ever been affiliated with any Native Americans, they only use one in their logo. Much like the Cleveland Indiands, or Atlanta Braves.

They are now owned by Reynolds.

I smoke the menthol, and have for about 2-3 years now. I can't say its a "safer" cigarette, but I do smoke and crave less since I've switched.

Damn you phillip morris! Why do you have to make the best cigarettes? What am I suppose to buy now? Nasty Paul Malls? And give me a break, child labor? Their profit margins are huge, they dont need to cut corners

Sadly, this is virtually the same story for most of the products we consume on a regular basis. It's a pretty safe assumption that anything which says "Made in China" was made by severely underpaid workers toiling in awful conditions and being fed amphetamines to allow them to work for hours on end.

Sad. I'd guess this probably goes on in a lot of the countries that we get our products from, China included. We can "quit" the products one at a time, and that's not a bad idea, but would that really influence these corporations? No. Plus, if you boycotted the products of all companies who do this or similar things, what products would really be left?

Seems they either try to rationalize it or justify it by saying that these people once had nothing and now they have something or that the children want to work to keep their families alive or however other way they try to put a positive spin on it. Or when they get caught, swear they didn't know and that it will change and then turn around and do it again.

But they will just do it again. They'd just move on to the next underdeveloped, desperate country, and by the time they run out of countries, the ones at the beginning of their sweep would be desperate again. And who can really stop them?

I don't smoke but my husband does. So glad we grow it for ourselves.
The tobacco plant itself is not evil. It is actually a very pretty plant that has been held as sacred since ancient times.

Sacred means deserving of respect. These corporations do not treat tobacco as sacred. Big mistake.

reply to post by ThaLoccster


I smoke those too. I don't feel any remorse about smoking. If cigarettes don't give me cancer, cell phones, tvs, car exhaust, cleaning chemicals, the ocean, the air, solar rays, sunscreen, alcohol, xrays, food, radio waves, ad infinitum will.

Nestles uses slave labor too. So yeah, don't just pick on tobacco, demonize the chocolate industry also.
Slave Chocolate

reply to post by NotTooHappy


Doesn't end with chocolate and tobacco most products purchased through 3 RD world countries involve forced labor. And next time you buy something that says made in china know that many of the workers are slaves. Maybe a good reason for people to buy stuff from western nations

PS cant blame the tobacco companies tobacco is a traded commodity all there doing is purchasing it from suppliers. The country from which it originates needs to make labor laws.

[edit on 7/17/10 by dragonridr]