Young Worker Safety And Health
Around the world, nearly 250 million children, about one in every six children aged 5 to 17, are involved in child labor. Children can be found in almost any economic sector. However, at a global level, most of them work in agriculture (70%). Approximately 2.4 million adolescents aged 16 to 17 years worked in the U.S. in 2006. Official employment statistics are not available for younger adolescents who are also known to work, especially in agricultural settings.
In 2006, 30 youth under 18 died from work-related injuries in the U.S. In 2003, an estimated 54,800 work-related injuries and illnesses among youth less than 18 years of age were treated in hospital emergency departments. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reports that only one-third of work-related injuries are seen in emergency departments, therefore it is likely that approximately 160,000 youth sustain work-related injuries and illnesses each year. The highest number of teen worker fatalities occur in agricultural work and the retail trades, according to recent data. Across Europe, 18 to 24-year-olds are at least 50% more likely to be injured in the workplace than more experienced workers.
Read more about Young Worker Safety And Health: Work That Poses Special Risks For Young Workers
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Play the Dead March as you carry me along;
Take me to the green valley, there lay the sod o’er me,
For I’m a young cowboy and I know I’ve done wrong.”
—Unknown. As I Walked Out in the Streets of Laredo (l. 5–8)
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—Edward Weston (1886–1958)
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neither, than with safety of a pure blush thou mayst in
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—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“I think that carrying a baby inside of you is like running as fast as you can. It feels like finally letting go and filling yourself up to the widest limits.”
—Anonymous Mother. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 2 (1978)