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BOCYF Projects
Health and Safety Implications of Child and Youth Labor
Publications: Protecting Youth at Work: Health, Safety, and Development of Working Children and Adolescents in the United States (1998)
Coinciding increases in child labor and rates of work-related injury and death among children and youth are raising concerns about the protection of children under age 18 who work. The majority of youth in the United States are engaged in paid employment at some time during their high school years. There are many constructive reasons why children work, including financial necessity and preparation for adult work roles. Indeed, recent evidence on predictors of youth violence among boys suggests that paid employment in the labor force may buffer against engagement in antisocial activities. Under certain conditions, however, work can be injurious to children, with consequences ranging from reduced school achievement to death. In 1993, 68 children under age 18 died from work-related injuries and an estimated 64,000 required treatment in hospital emergency rooms for work-related injuries.
With these considerations in mind, the Board on Children, Youth, and Families convened the Committee on the Health and Safety Implications of Child Labor. Over the course of 12 months, the committee (1) synthesized the relevant research on the consequences of agricultural and nonagricultural child labor for fatalities, injuries, disease, and other health and psychosocial outcomes, both positive and negative, among children and youth; (2) characterized the conditions under which beneficial and adverse consequences are most likely to occur, and the extent of exposure of children and youth to adverse conditions, including exposure to pesticides and other toxins; (3) assessed the current status of federal, state, and local agency responsibility, regulation, monitoring, and surveillance associated with child labor, both agricultural and nonagricultural, in the United States; and (4) provided a set of recommendations regarding:
- the collection of health and safety data in the area of child labor;
- the coordination of monitoring and surveillance activities to assure that adequate, reliable, and useful data are collected;
- where a science base exists, the identification of conditions of child labor currently regulated (e.g., hours of work, types of work) that appear to pose particular risks to the health, safety, education, and development of children and youth; and
- the identification of research needs and opportunities.
A report of the committee's work, Protecting Youth at Work: Health, Safety, and Development of Working Children and Adolescents in the United States, was published in November 1998.
The study was requested by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, with additional support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
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