Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) outbreaks are frequently blamed on the shipment of infected plugs or cuttings into area greenhouses. While this may be accurate in some cases, there are many more instances of localized TMV outbreaks that can be linked to our employees and growing practices.
by Tom Ford - tgf2@psu.edu
While it now seems like a century ago, I once served as an assistant grower for a mid-sized wholesale/retail greenhouse operation in the Maryland area. We had approximately 20 full time employees on the books, but over 200 workers would pass through our operation in a given year. The vast majority of these employees were tobacco users and even though we had defined break areas and handwashing facilities we would frequently catch our best workers using tobacco products in and around our greenhouse facilities.