Farmer Healthcare: Why Tobacco Growers Have Almost No Access to Medical Services
Tobacco farmers in LMICs have minimal access to healthcare—including the healthcare they need for occupational injuries and illnesses caused by tobacco farming. The healthcare gap is a dimension of the tobacco transition that is almost never discussed.
A tobacco farmer in Malawi who develops respiratory symptoms from years of tobacco dust exposure has no access to a pulmonologist—or even a primary care doctor. **Healthcare access for tobacco farmers is minimal to nonexistent. The occupational health consequences of tobacco farming—green tobacco sickness, pesticide poisoning, respiratory disease—go untreated. The farmers who produce the crop receive none of the healthcare that the consumers of the crop, in high-income countries, take for granted.**
