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Source Materials - Excerpts that served as inspiration for Hope's Choice
"To ensure an endless supply of inexpensive cigarettes and cigars and high profits for tobacco companies, millions of pounds of toxic chemicals are being used on millions of acres of land around the world - land that in most cases could be used to grow food. Viewed in a global context, tobacco not only endangers the lives of smokers, it threatens the health and well being of millions of tobacco farmers and workers in countries around the world. Concerned US citizens should rightly question the sustainability and sanity of the tobacco industry, at home and abroad."

Developing Nations Markets

The spread of smoking to the developing world
The large multinational tobacco companies based in Britain and the USA are largely responsible for the spread of the smoking habit to developing countries. As long ago as 1915, BAT became established in China and was instrumental in encouraging the Chinese people to smoke. Within 30 years, China's annual consumption of cigarettes rose from a negligible number to 100 billion6 and by 1994 it stood at 1,646 billion.7 Following World War II, the USA began exporting tobacco under the "Food for Peace" program. In the first 25 years of the program, the US exported almost $1 billion worth of tobacco. This project exposed developing countries to western style cigarettes. By the late 1960s, the leading US and UK companies were selling to dozens of countries.8 During the 1980s, international sales rose dramatically. In 1994, 220 billion US - manufactured cigarettes were shipped abroad,9 a 55% increase since 1989.
Asian countries in particular have been the target of US tobacco companies. During the 1980s, the US Government threatened trade sanctions against Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Thailand unless they opened up their markets to American cigarettes. All four countries gave in to US pressure but Thailand later won the right to ban cigarette advertising under a ruling by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which ruled that countries could give "priority to human health over trade liberalization". Since the lifting of import restrictions, the Asian countries have witnessed a dramatic increase in smoking: in Taiwan, consumption rose by 5% within a year and there has been a sharp rise in the number of young smokers. Since 1987, American tobacco companies have taken 16 per cent of the market.10

From ash factsheet on Tobacco in Developing Nations at:
http://www.ash.org.uk/html/factsheets/html/fact21.html

Pesticide Use

In many countries, people working in the tobacco fields are continually exposed to dangerous agro-chemicals, any of which are provided directly by the tobacco companies. An instructions leaflet given tobacco farmers in Kenya, for example, includes the recommendation that during the three moth period from seedbed to transplanting, there should be 16 separate applications of pesticides.
The risks begin during the preparation of the soil, where highly toxic fumigants such a methyl bromide are often used to kill nematodes and other soil organisms. During the course of cultivating the crop, tobacco workers are directly exposed to chemicals such as aldicarb, butralin, and endosulfan which can cause damage to eyes, skin, internal organs, and are potentially carcinogenic and mutagenic. Exposure to these chemicals poses a considerably higher risk to children than adults since exposure in the early years can lean to a greater risk of cancer, damage to the child’s developing nervous system and cause immune system dysfunction.

Workers picking tobacco have been reported to experience green tobacco sickness (GTS), a type of nicotine poisoning which is caused by the absorption of nicotine through the skin. GTS is characterized by symptoms that may include nausea, vomiting, weakness, headache, dizziness, abdominal cramps, difficulty in breathing, as well as fluctuation s in blood pressure and hear rates. Researcher in the United States have fount that moisture on tobacco leaves greatly increases the severity of GTS because it enhances the absorption of nicotine, a toxin, by the skin. Since harvesting often occurs under wet conditions, including morning dew, avoiding exposure is difficult.
[this whole section is from the WCTOR Agriculture factsheet and specific references can be found there]

Mortality

Cigarette smoking has been indemnified as the most important source of preventable morbidity and premature mortality in the United States. An estimated 430,700 Americans die each year from diseases directly related to smoking. Smoking is responsible for one in five U.S. deaths and costs the economy at least 100 billion dollars in heath care costs and lost productivity. New long-term studies estimate that about half of all regular cigarette smokers die of smoking-related diseases. (1)WCTOH Factsheet

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