Recommended Practices: Green Tobacco Sickness

Details

• Journal Article:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Corporate Authors:
  Occupational Safety and Health Administration ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  Workers who plant, cultivate and harvest tobacco are at risk of suffering from a form of nicotine poisoning known as "Green Tobacco Sickness". This illness causes nausea and vomiting that can lead to hospitalization and lost work time. Tobacco workers suffering from Green Tobacco Sickness are at greater risk for heat illness - a potentially deadly condition. Nicotine exposure from handling tobacco leaves may cause nicotine poisoning, also called Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS), with symptoms including nausea and vomiting. Risk of nicotine poisoning increases when the nicotine contained in the tobacco leaves mixes with rain, dew, or sweat, allowing nicotine to get onto the skin and pass into the bloodstream more easily. Workers may experience GTS symptoms while at work or several hours after the workday ends. About one quarter of workers harvesting tobacco in fields located in North Carolina suffered from GTS in a single season, according to a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)-funded study.1 Although GTS symptoms normally do not last more than 24 hours after workers stop handling tobacco leaves, there are currently no comprehensive studies evaluating long-term effects. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Heat Stress Disorders Hot Temperature Nicotine Occupational Diseases Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Poisoning Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Skin Absorption Skin Diseases Tobacco Industry Tobacco Products Workplace

  More +
• Keywords:
  Agricultural-workers; Agriculture; Agricultural-products; Workers; Work-environment; Tobacco; Tobacco-industry; Poisons; Exposure-levels; Risk-factors; Heat; Heat-exhaustion; Heat-exposure
• Source:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2015-104, 2015 Mar; :1-5
• Series:
  NIOSH Numbered Publications
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Guidance
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  5 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20045980
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2015-104127
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:426a4c0ff86631ade3321f18f7e8b12231e71822ae4cfc36357b0c196b4bfb17cf9dde22bc554d5f027d2cab46e1349365f733a7bda20dd3e4a5305e1ff4e479
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/29369/cdc_29369_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 808.84 KB ]