lets look at a few facts.
TMV kills tobacco, so fields with TMV are going to be destroyed, not grown up to make
cigarettes. Late and inapparent infections could be present in mature plants.
When tobacco is smoked, a fire combusts the material so it can be "smoked".
Fire kills virus.
Cigarettes are wrapped in paper by machines. The paper that comes into contact with
people's hands is not infected with TMV.

OTOH, TMV infects all kinds of other plants domestic and weed and is present in the
wild. It is carried by sucking insects from plant to plant. Not all plants infected
show disease, so weeding is more likely to cover the hands with all kinds of
diseases.
Touching the plant is not the most efficient way to transmit the virus. Handling the
plant that damages cells can for instance transplanting and suckering a tomato plant.
But the greatest source of TMV is going to be infected plants, so washing hands WHILE
TRANSPLANTING is going to prevent plant to plant transmission.

Ingrid

animaux wrote:
Please site this information or stop giving this as a suggestion. I've stood
and watched an entire greenhouse go down from TMV in a two day period because
one of the workers didn't wash his hands before running the transplant line.



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