Source: New York Times Blogs
Date: 2010-07-16
Author: DUFF WILSON

Leaders of a Congressional investigation panel on Friday asked
the global tobacco giant Philip Morris International to produce
any information from the past three years regarding child labor,
forced labor or unsafe working conditions in its overseas
markets.

The request from the Committee on Energy and Commerce followed a
report in The Times on a human rights group\'s finding that
P.M.I., the maker of Marlboro products overseas, benefited from
at least 72 instances of child labor in tobacco fields in
Kazakhstan.

The committee asked for all documents since Jan. 1, 2007,
"relating to any allegations of abusive labor practices in any of
your company\'s production markets, including child labor, forced
labor, illegal withholding of passports, unsafe working
conditions, and unsanitary living conditions, and the company\'s
efforts to prevent such practices."

The letter on Friday was signed by the committee chairman, a
longtime tobacco fighter, Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of
California, and the chairman of the subcommittee on oversight and
investigations, Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan.