Malawi: Child tobacco pickers suffer nicotine poisoning. voice-online.co.uk. August 31, 2009. AN INVESTIGATION has found that children in Malawi who are forced to work as tobacco pickers are exposed to nicotine poisoning equivalent to smoking 50 cigarettes a day. Child workers, some as young as five, are suffering severe health problems from a daily skin absorption of up to 54 milligrams of dissolved nicotine, according to international children’s organisation Plan. Plan claims that an estimated 78,000 children work on tobacco estates for as little as 1p an hour for up to 12 hours a day. Forty-four children from tobacco farms in three different districts were asked by the organisation to take part in a series of workshops. They found that the children suffered from common symptoms of green tobacco sickness (GTS), or nicotine poisoning, including severe headaches, abdominal pain, muscle weakness, coughing and breathlessness. [ See ]