TOBACCO'S OTHER VICTIMS

How times must change. I lived in maryland during the 1960's. I knew a few tobacco growers. One was a dear friend of mine. He and his family did all of the labor on their farm. There was very little about the work that was done in hot weather except for the cultivating. The plants were started in February, then planted in the fields in May. The plants were harvested in late September or October. In the winter, the leaves were stripped from the the stalk, sorted into grades and put into bales. In the spring the bales were tken to warehouses where buyers from the tobacco companies came to buy the tobacco. It was sold by lot - often by auction. In ten years around the industry, I never heard of any of the disease or illness you describe and I knew many who worked in tobacco part time. There was not an alien among them. There were people hired by the day and by the hour when there was more than the grower could do with his family.
Fred

Times have indeed changed. I'm surprised to hear that workers had no health problems in the days you speak of, since, I assume, the plants had as much nicotine in them then as now. In any case, lots of workers are getting sick nowadays and several huge corporations are getting rich off their dangerous work (and, of course, many users of their products are getting sick from them, sometimes fatally sick).
dm