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I'm Dr. Anthony Liesiewicz, and this is Climate Connections. You would not let a child smoke a cigarette. But many kids, including some in the US work on farms picking tobacco for those cigarettes. And as a result, they can suffer from green tobacco sickness, a kind of nicotine poisoning. When people pick raw tobacco for hours on end, they can absorb an immense amount of nicotine through their skin, causing causing symptoms like vomiting and cramps. This is especially dangerous for children
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because they're still developing.
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Louis Ziska, a Columbia University health researcher, says climate change could increase the risk of green tobacco sickness. In a recent study, he found that some tobacco growing regions in Brazil, India, China, and the US could get hotter, wetter, or both as the climate changes. Nicotine is water soluble, so it's absorbed more easily when tobacco leaves or people's skin are wet with rain or sweat. And sweating can also boost nicotine absorption by increasing blood flow near the skin.
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That suggests that the current risk that's posed to tobacco workers will be intensified by climate change.
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So Zisca hopes this growing danger leads to policies that keep children out of tobacco fields. Climate Connections is produced by the Yale center for Environmental Communication. To learn more about climate, visit climateconnections.org.
Host: Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz (Yale University)
Guest: Dr. Louis Ziska (Columbia University Health Researcher)
Date: May 21, 2026
This episode spotlights the intersection between child labor in the tobacco industry and the growing public health risks posed by climate change. Host Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz discusses how rising temperatures and changing weather patterns could intensify “green tobacco sickness”—a form of nicotine poisoning contracted through skin contact during tobacco harvesting. The episode emphasizes the urgent need for policies to protect already vulnerable child workers as these climate-driven hazards worsen.
This brief but impactful episode of Climate Connections demonstrates how the dangers of tobacco harvesting, already severe for child workers, can become even more acute due to the impacts of climate change. Increased heat and moisture, both predicted outcomes in key tobacco-producing areas, will mean more children could suffer from green tobacco sickness unless urgent policy changes are made. Dr. Leiserowitz and Dr. Ziska sound an alarm for both environmental and social justice, calling for immediate action to protect vulnerable workers—and especially children—in agriculture as our climate continues to warm.