"Just 13, and Working Risky 12-Hour Shifts in the Tobacco Fields"

"PINK HILL, N.C. — On many mornings, as tobacco plants tower around her, Saray Cambray Alvarez pulls a black plastic garbage bag over her 13-year-old body to protect her skin from leaves dripping with nicotine-tinged dew.

When Saray and other workers — including several more teenagers — get to the fields at 6, they punch holes through the bags for their arms. They are trying to avoid what is known as 'green tobacco sickness,' or nicotine poisoning, which can cause vomiting, dizziness and irregular heart rates, among other symptoms.

Saray says that she sometimes has trouble breathing in the middle of all the heat, humidity and leaves, and that she often feels weary during her 12-hour shifts, when she moves through the rows to pluck unwanted flowers or pull off oversize leaves for the harvest."

Steven Greenhouse reports for the New York Times September 6, 2014.