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Tennessee Lacks Workplace Safety Structure For Tobacco Farms

Marco Manna/Creative Commons

Tennessee workplace safety officials don't carry out routine inspections of tobacco farms, creating an environment that labor advocates say leads to a higher risk for on-the-job injuries.

The Nashville Tennessean reviewed federal recordsand found that no safety inspections have been carried out at Tennessee tobacco farms since December 2006.

Officials with the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the body charged with maintaining workplace safety standards, told the Tennessean that they have neither the funding nor the legislative support to carry out a heavy program of inspections. For contrast, they pointed to North Carolina, which approved specific laws addressing tobacco farms, along with more than $600,000 in funding specifically for tobacco farm inspections.

In 2011, the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development proposed updating its own list of dangerous jobs to include jobs in tobacco farming, but the request was never granted, according to the Tennessean.

Later this month, union leaders with the AFL-CIO will come to Tennessee to explore unionizing tobacco farm workers.