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Adolescent and adult workers have similar risks of fatal occupational injuries. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has determined that there is a similarity in risk between adolescents and adults. This is cause for concern because adolescents are employed less frequently in especially hazardous jobs. The rate of fatal injuries among adolescents should therefore be much lower than for adults.
Federal child labor laws prohibit some work associated with large numbers of deaths and serious injuries such as driving a motor vehicle and operating a forklift. Other hazardous activities, such as working alone in retail businesses and cooking, are typically permitted.
Federal child labor laws restrict hours and types of work for 14- and 15-year-olds and set minimum ages for work declared hazardous under the law. Hazardous work in non-farm businesses including family businesses is prohibited for adolescents under age 18. The Federal youth employment provisions do not:
The primary law governing the employment of workers under age 18 is the Fair Labor Standards Act, which is enforced by the Wage and Hour Division of the Employment Standards Administration within the Department of Labor. Child labor provisions of this act are designed to protect the educational opportunities of minors and prohibit their employment in jobs and under conditions that could harm their health or well-being.
States also have child labor laws. They may be stricter than Federal child labor laws.
NIOSH recommends that employers take the following steps to protect adolescent workers:
Here is a list of duties declared hazardous under Federal child labor laws:
The basic rules for when and where a youth may work are:
Motor-vehicle-related deaths accounted for nearly one-fourth of the work-related injury deaths of 16- and 17-year-olds. These deaths include those of workers who were drivers and passengers in motor vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists involved in crashes with motor vehicles.
The following jobs are examples of work that may be associated with motor-vehicle-related deaths and injuries:
Machine-related deaths were the second leading cause of work-related injury death for 16- and 17-year-olds. Tractors alone accounted for 44 percent of the machine-related deaths.
The following lists examples of heavy equipment associated with deaths:
Electrocution was the third leading cause of work-related injury death among 16- and 17-year-olds. Electrocution accounted for a greater proportion of work-related injury deaths in adolescents than in adults. Contact with an energized power line caused more than 50 percent of the electrocutions.
The following types of work pose an increased risk for electrocution:
Assaults and violent acts account for approximately one-fourth of all work-related injury deaths of adolescents. Most work-related homicides are associated with robbery.
The following types of jobs involve increased risk for work-related homicide:
Falls were the fifth leading cause of work-related injury death for 16- and 17-year-olds; they accounted for 8 percent of these deaths. Forty percent of fatal falls were from or out of a building or other structure. Fatal falls were documented for distances ranging from 10 feet to 14 floors.
The following types of jobs are associated with work-related falls:
Severe burns are a risk for adolescents involved in cooking. Approximately 5,000 adolescents sought emergency-room treatment each year for work-related burns associated with cooking or working in a place where food was prepared.
The following types of work involve burn hazards associated with cooking:
Overexertion accounted for approximately 4,500 work-related injuries of adolescents treated in hospital emergency rooms; about 2,500 of these injuries were attributed to lifting. These estimates are conservative, since sprains and strains that result from repeated stress on the body (as opposed to a single injurious event) are often not treated in emergency rooms but by private physicians or clinics. Sprains and strains associated with lifting are frequently severe. Although an individual’s ability to safely lift objects varies, work for adolescents should not generally require them to lift objects weighing greater than 15 pounds more than once per minute or to lift objects weighing greater than 30 pounds; tasks involving continuous lifting should never last more than two hours.
The following types of work may involve hazardous manual lifting:
Federal child labor laws prohibit many particularly hazardous jobs. Particularly hazardous work that is not typically prohibited by Federal child labor laws includes work in petroleum and gas extraction, commercial fishing, many jobs that require use of respirators, work in sewage treatment plants or sewers, work on industrial conveyors, many uses of compressed air or pneumatic tools such as nail guns, and work around many types of machines with power take-offs or similarly rotating drivelines.
In addition to injuries, hazardous materials and working conditions are also a concern for adolescent workers. Exposures of adolescent workers to hazardous materials and working conditions may result in an immediate illness; however, illness might not be detected for months or years after exposure. Adolescent workers may be exposed to pesticides in farm work and lawn care, benzene at gasoline stations, lead in auto body repair, asbestos and silica in construction and maintenance work, and high levels of noise in manufacturing, construction, and agriculture. Concerns have also been raised that fatigue from balancing work and school may contribute to injuries among adolescent workers.