[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 55 (Thursday, April 16, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2246-S2247]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DURBIN (for himself, Mr. Reed, Mrs. Feinstein, and Mr. 
        Brown):
  S. 974. A bill to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to 
prohibit employment of children in tobacco-related agriculture by 
deeming such employment as oppressive child labor; to the Committee on 
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the important 
issue of child labor in tobacco fields. I want to tell you about 
Calvin, a 17-year-old boy just over five feet tall, who migrated to the 
United States by himself at age 13, leaving his family behind in 
Mexico. Calvin never enrolled in school.
  Instead, he joined a migrant crew that travels between several states 
to work in different crops. He migrates to Kentucky in August to work 
in the tobacco fields. Calvin has worked in tobacco farms since he was 
16, and he experiences headaches and nausea from nicotine poisoning.
  Calvin said he got sick while working in a curing barn. ``I got a 
headache and nausea. I was vomiting,'' he said. ``It happened when I 
was hanging the tobacco in the barn.''
  I wish that Calvin's experience was unusual. But in May of last year, 
the Human Rights Watch published a report based on interviews with over 
140 children who worked on U.S. tobacco farms in 2012 or 2013. The 
majority of those children were working for hire, and not on a family 
farm. Some of the findings are staggering and show that Calvin is not 
along.
  Human Rights Watch found that child tobacco workers began working on 
tobacco farms at age 11 or 12. During peak harvest periods, children 
can work as many as 50-60 hours a week. The majority of these children 
experience symptoms like nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, dizziness, 
lightheadedness, headaches, and sleeplessness while working on tobacco 
farms. These symptoms are consistent with acute nicotine poisoning, 
which happens when you absorb nicotine through their skin.
  Furthermore, in these conditions, children work in high heat and 
humidity and in some instances, they use dangerous tools that include 
sharp spikes to spear tobacco plants and climb to dangerous heights to 
hang tobacco in curing barns. These children are exposed to pesticides 
that are known toxins. Long-term effects of this exposure include 
cancer, neurological deficits, and reproductive health problems.
  In his first summer in the field, 12-year-old Miguel was topping 
tobacco plants on a farm in North Carolina wearing shorts and a short-
sleeved shirt, his torso draped with a black plastic garbage bag to 
cover himself from the summer's heavy rainstorms. Miguel wore only 
socks--because he did

[[Page S2247]]

not have shoes that could withstand the thick mud from the heavy rain.
  Miguel lives with his mother, 13-year-old brother, and 5-year-old 
sister in a rural town in North Carolina. He attends a public school 
full-time, and works in the fields during his summer break to help 
cover the costs of food, clothes, and school supplies for the family.
  Miguel was hired by a farm labor contractor to work on different 
farms planting sweet potatoes one day, topping tobacco the next. When 
asked which crop was harder work, Miguel said, ``tobacco, because you 
have to walk, and you have to use your hands all the time. It's really 
tiring.''
  It is tiring. By the time Miguel got home, he would have trouble 
walking because his legs and feet were so sore from working all day. 
Not only was 12-year Miguel physically overworked, he, like Calvin, 
also had to deal with frequent headaches, caused by nicotine poisoning, 
from working in the tobacco fields. He said, ``It was horrible. It felt 
like there was something in my head trying to eat it.''
  I am introducing legislation today, with Senator Reed of Rhode 
Island, Senator Feinstein and Senator Brown to take children like 
Calvin and Miguel out of the tobacco fields. Our bill would make it 
illegal to allow children under the age of 18 to handle tobacco plants 
or dried tobacco leaves.
  Currently, U.S. law prohibits children under the age of 18 from 
buying cigarettes . . . but allows children as young as 12 to work in 
tobacco fields. In most other jobs in the U.S., children are not 
allowed to work before the age of 15.
  Today, there are no specific restrictions protecting children from 
nicotine poisoning or other risks associated with tobacco farming in 
this country. The United States is the 4th leading tobacco producer in 
the world, behind China, Brazil, and India. Even Brazil and India 
prohibit children under 18 from working in tobacco production.
  It's time for the United States to adopt similar restrictions. Our 
children shouldn't be working long hours with a plant that makes them 
sick. I encourage my colleagues to work with me to pass S. 974, the 
Children Don't Belong on Tobacco Farms Act.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                 S. 974

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. TOBACCO-RELATED AGRICULTURE EMPLOYMENT OF 
                   CHILDREN.

       Section 3(l) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29 
     U.S.C. 203(l)) is amended--
       (1) in this first sentence--
       (A) by striking ``in any occupation, or (2)'' and inserting 
     ``in any occupation, (2)''; and
       (B) by inserting before the semicolon the following: ``, or 
     (3) any employee under the age of eighteen years has direct 
     contact with tobacco plants or dried tobacco leaves''; and
       (2) in the second sentence, by striking ``other than 
     manufacturing and mining'' and inserting ``, other than 
     manufacturing, mining, and tobacco-related agriculture as 
     described in paragraph (3) of the first sentence of this 
     subsection,''.
                                 ______