WASHINGTON (AP) — Thirty-five House members are urging the Obama administration to ban children from working on tobacco farms, citing concerns about ill health effects.
The lawmakers, led by Reps. David Cicilline, D-R.I., and Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., made their plea in a letter to Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez. A copy of the letter was obtained by The Associated Press Tuesday.
In 2012, the Labor Department withdrew a proposed rule that would have banned children from several kinds of agriculture work, including tobacco farms. In their letter, the lawmakers urged a narrower ban that would deal solely with children on tobacco farms.
A Human Rights Watch report this year said that nearly three-quarters of the children it interviewed reported vomiting, nausea and headaches while working on tobacco farms.
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