Protecting Youth at Work Health, Safety, and Development of Working Children and Adolescents in the United States (1998) / Chapter Skim
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3 Health and Safety at Work
3 Health and Safety at Work
Pages 53-109
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From page 53... ...
In fact, if one examines the major industries in which adolescents are employed, one finds that many of these industries grocery stores, nursing homes, and agriculture have higherthan-average injury rates for workers of all ages; see Table 3-~. In general, typical "teen jobs" cannot be assumed to be safe.
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From page 54... ...
100 FTE) All Private 8.9 3.9 8.5 3.8 Industries Agricultures 12.2 Grocery Stores 12.7 Eating Places 9.1 3.1 5.5 11.5 5.3 5.0 11.3 4.7 8.5 3.0 Nursing Homesb 18.6 9.3 17.3 8.9 NOTES: The incidence rates represent the number of injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time equivalent workers and were calculated as follows: (N/EH)
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From page 55... ...
bThese figures are for nursing and personal care facilities, the category that includes nursing homes, for which separate rates were not available. SOURCE: Data from Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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From page 56... ...
None of the data sources specifically rates injury severity, but the sources include only injuries that require multiple days away from work or require medical attention both commonly used indicators of serious injuries. Extent of the Problem One approach to estimating the magnitude of the problem is to examine workers' compensation claims filed for children and adolescents.
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From page 57... ...
These records document not only serious injuries, but also injuries that do not necessarily require time away from work. In the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, the National Center for Health Statistics of the U.S.
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From page 58... ...
58 PROTECTING YOUTH AT WORK TABLE 3-2 Studies on Work-Related Injuries of Adolescents Study Population/Source Sample Banco et al., 1992 Belville et al., 1993 14- to 17-year-olds/ Connecticut workers' compensation reports for 1989 14- to 17-year-olds/ Workers' compensation records for 19801987; New York state 796 workers' compensation reports for 14- to 17-yearolds ~ .05 % 14-year-olds; 10.2% 15-year-olds; 34.7% 16-year-olds; 54.6% 17-year-olds) 9,656 work-related .
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From page 59... ...
. cone ltlons 1% systemic injuries 42% food stores 27.5% general merchandise stores 11.3 % restaurants 17% overexertion 7.4% professional 13% falls and related services 7% burns 3.6 % manufacturing 8 % other 2.7% public admin 2.6 % business and .
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From page 60... ...
. communities 14- to 17-year-olds/ Workers' compensation records for 19 8 71990; Massachusetts 872 high school vocational agriculture students in central Wisconsin/ Audiometric assessment Under 18 years old in Texas/ Workers' compensation reports, 1991 1,176 work-related .
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From page 61... ...
HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK 6 Injury Job Type Event 49.1% lacerations 12.2% contusions 9.6 % strains, sprains 7.5 % eye injuries 6.4% burns 3.0 % fractures 2.0 % concussion, cranial 0.4% amputation 9.9% other 33.1% sprain, strain 24.3% laceration 15.6%contusion, crushing 8.5% fracture 4.7% burn 0.7% amputation 13.1% other 57.1% of students who live and work on farms 54.5% of student who work on farms, but live elsewhere 24% of students who live, but do not work on farms 33% of students with no farm exposure 41.7% cutting, piercing objects 12% struck by object 9.6 % falls 6.9% machinery 6.8% burns 6.3% overexertion 4.5% caught in or between object (s) 4.4% foreign object 7.8 % other 55.4% retail trade 20% services 11% manufacturing 4.6 % construction 3.5% wholesale trade 2.0 % transportation 1.2% agriculture 2.2% other 35 % vehicle drivers, material handlers 3 0 % service laborers 19% sales workers Table continues on pages 62-69
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From page 62... ...
30, 1992 14- to 17-year-olds/ Representative sample of emergency departments (NEISS)
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From page 63... ...
. recreation services 3% hospitals 44% other 38 % eating establishments 7.8 % food stores 7.6 % other retail 6.7% health services 3.3% amusement, recreation 2.9% educational services 7.6 % other services 6.7% agriculture 4% manufacturing 15 % all other 25% adding, filtering, changing hot grease 16% splashed grease 14 % cleaning grill 11% slipped on floor into grease 34% other 50% hot grease 25% grills, other cooking equipment 42% hot grease 35% hot water 17% moving materials or freight 13 % cooking, food preparation 12% janatorial work 10% stocking shelves, cutting up boxes Table continues on pages 64-69
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From page 64... ...
Department of Health and Human Services, 1996 ~ state-specific numbers also available) Parker et al., 1994b (Minnesota Adolescent Occupational Injury Study)
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From page 65... ...
HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK 65 Injury Job Type Event 45.3% restaurants 18.8 % food stores and other sales 31% sprains, strains 17% cuts, lacerations 13% contusions, abrasions 8% heat burns 5% fractures, dislocations 29% burn 27% cut 23% sprain 10% bruise 3% puncture 12% other (36% of injuries met reporting criteria) 50% struck by person or object 14.6 % falls 10.1% overexertion 9.1% burns 4.9% toxic exposures 3.3% caught in machinery 0.7% moving vehicle 14% grocery stores 6% nursing, personal care facilities 5% department stores 39% eating, drinking 21% falls on same level establishments 17% over exertion 10% striking against objects 9% contact with hot objects 7% struck by falling object 6% struck by slipping hand held object, such as knife, razor, tool 31.6% striking or struck by object 25.4% contact with hot object 17.1% lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling 10% falls Table continues on pages 66-69
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From page 66... ...
66 TABLE 3-2 Continued PROTECTING YOUTH AT WORK Study Population/Source Sample Parker et al., 1994a Schober et al., 1988 Under 18-year-olds/ Injury reports to Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, 8/15/90 to 8/14/9 1 and follow-up interviews of injured adolescents 17 years and younger/ Workers' Compensation claims in the BLS Supplemental Data System, 19 8 0 742 injuries (complete information on 534) 23,823 claims
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From page 67... ...
HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK 67 Injury Job Type Event 37.6% strains and sprains 24.2% cuts and lacerations 13.1% burns 12.5% bruises 8.8 % fractures 36.5% cut, laceration 17.3 % sprains strains 12.8 % contusion, 3%/1% agriculture 4%/7% nurses aide 6%/7% dish buser 13 %/8 % carhop 14%/14% cashier (restaurant) 12%/14% fast food cook 11 %/7% short order cook 13%/11 % dishwasher 4%15% waiter 43 %145 % janitor 2 %/2 % sales clerk 16 %/15 % stock clerk 16 %/15 % bagger 49.7% retail trade 20.9% services 9.1% manufacturing 6.1% agriculture, forestry, fishing crush 3.9% wholesale 9.7% burns trade 5.8% fracture 3.7% construction 3.5% abrasions 3.7% public admin 0.7% dislocations 1.2 % transportation, 0.6 % amputations utilities 13.1% other 1.2% finance, real estate 0.3% mining 0.3% not classified Table continues on pages 68-69
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From page 68... ...
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NTOSH) , in collaboration with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, has used data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NElSS)
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From page 69... ...
The numbers alone indicate a basis for considerable concern. Moreover, because teens typically work part-time, often in seasonal jobs, the numbers of injuries suffered by adolescent workers translate into high injury rates per hour worked.
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From page 70... ...
and older in 1996, based on the same sample, was 2.8 per 100 full-time-equivalent workers (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1998~. The injury rates alone do not provide a sense of the consequences of occupational injuries for the injured adolescents or for the adolescent population in general.
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From page 71... ...
Federal child labor laws and many state laws have stronger restrictions on the work that may be performed by those under the age of 16. Therefore, younger workers may be in less hazardous jobs.
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From page 72... ...
For example, studies based on emergency-department records indicate that cuts and lacerations are the leading type of injury, while studies based on workers' compensation claims for injuries resulting in lost work time and on Occupational Health and Safety Administration data from injury logs tend to report more sprains and strains (Brooks and Davis, 1996; Brooks et al., 1993; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1996; Layne et al., 1994~. Although data on the extent of disability associated with these injuries are limited, the seriousness of these injuries should not be Aii others 14.6% Fractures or dislocations 4.2% Burns 12.4% Sprains orstains \ 16.2% lacerations 34.5% Contusions or abrasions 18.2% FIGURE 3-1 Work-related injures of 14- to 17-year-olds, by type of injury.
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From page 73... ...
Grocery Cut arms or Case-cutter slips while opening cardboard Stores legs boxes Torso strains Overexertion while lifting or moving inventory Overexertion while lifting customer bags Overexertion while retrieving carts from parking lot Nursing Back strains Homes Overexertion while lifting patients underestimated. The fact that the data come from hospital emer gency rooms and workers' compensation claims indicates that the injuries were serious enough to require medical attention.
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From page 74... ...
Without exception, in studies of nonfatal injuries, half of the injuries occurred among youth employed in retail trades, predominantly in restaurants and food stores (Banco et al., 1992; BeIville et al., 1993; Brooks et al., 1993; Brooks and Davis, 1996; Layne et al., 1994; Miller, 1995; Schober et al., 1988~. Nationally, nearly 40 percent of work-related injuries suffered by youngsters occur in restaurants, and between 8 percent and 14 percent occur in food stores.
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From page 75... ...
(1994~. 75 Retail 54.0% injuries include general merchandise stores, nursing homes, and agriculture (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1996; Layne et al., 1994~; see Figure 3-2.
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From page 76... ...
Limitations of data on both the number of young workers and the number of their work-related injuries pose significant challenges in calculating rates and comparing findings across studies, but injury rates reported in several state and national studies draw attention to high-risk industries, some of which are not necessarily highlighted solely by the numbers of injuries that occur in them. Layne et al.
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From page 77... ...
Of 562 North Carolina teens with work experience outside of farming, 36 percent reported using ladders or scaffolds at work; 31 percent reported using forklifts, tractors, or riding mowers on the job; and 27 percent reported working around very loud noises (Dunn et al., 1998~. Of 300 Massachusetts high-schoof students who reported that they were currently working or had previously worked, 50 percent reported using cleaning chemicals at work, nearly 50 percent used case cutters, 37 percent used ladders, 19 percent used food slicers, and 13 percent used box crushers despite the fact that child labor laws prohibit individuals under the age of ~ 8 from operating either food slicers or box crushers.
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From page 79... ...
79 of To a, ~.
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From page 81... ...
Approximately 90 percent of youths killed at work were males, which is similar to the findings for adults (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1996; Castillo and Malit, 1997; Castillo et al., 1994; Cooper and Rothstein, 1995; Derstine, 1996; Dunn and Runyan, 1993~. In 1992-1995, employment in agriculture accounted for the largest proportion (40 percent)
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From page 82... ...
Findings for workers of all ages indicate that the majority of work-related homicides are associated with robberies in retail trades (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1996~. Firearms were used in 21 of the 24 homicides of workers between the ages of 16 and 17 between 1990 and 1992 (Castillo and Malit, 1997~.
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From page 83... ...
This rate is only slightly lower than that for older workers (3.87 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers age 20-24, 3.95 for ages 25-34, 3.93 for ages 35-44, and 4.56 for ages 45-54) , which is cause for concern inasmuch as federal and state labor laws prohibit youngsters from working in the most hazardous jobs.
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From page 84... ...
A recent Massachusetts survey, in which an industrial hygienist observed youth working in paid jobs and vocational shops, found young workers exposed to a wide range of potential hazards, including lead and asthmacausing agents in construction, ergonomic stressors in health-care settings, and reproductive hazards in a print shop.2 The paradigm used to establish exposure limits for many health 2Personal communication, E Morse, Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
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From page 85... ...
The Work: Types of Jobs Many of the industries that employ large numbers of children and adolescents grocery stores, hospitals and nursing homes, and agriculture have higher-than-average injury rates for workers of all ages. Children and adolescents face the same workplace hazards
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From page 86... ...
fobs with these characteristics are, in general, more dangerous than those without them. For example, one study found the incidence of occupational injuries and illnesses positively associated with authoritarian work structures and negatively associated with on-the-job training, promotion opportunity, job security, and wages (Robinson, 1988~.
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From page 87... ...
In fact, more than 100 standards promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration explicitly require employers to train employees in the safety and health aspects of their jobs (U.S. Department of Labor, 1992~.
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From page 88... ...
Of 104 deaths of children and adolescents investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from 1984 through 1987, 41 percent involved youths engaged in work prohibited by federal child labor laws (Suruda and Halperin, 1991~. However, many youths are injured or killed while doing legally allowed tasks.
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From page 89... ...
At the same time, it is important to examine factors specific to young workers that may place them at risk, which include inexperience, lack of physical or emotional maturity, and the need to balance school and work. The fact that developmental characteristics may play a role in young workers' injury rates in no way implies that children and adolescents are to blame for their own injuries.
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From page 90... ...
Studies of occupational injuries provide no clear-cut answers about the relative influences of inexperience and an individual worker's personal characteristics (such as age) on the occurrence of hazardous incidents, but a number of studies have found a relationship between injury rates and adult workers' ages.
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From page 91... ...
Length of time on the job had little effect when the influence of age was statistically excluded from the analysis. The highest injury rates were observed among workers under the age of 25 when another risk factor, such as inexperience, job change, or rig transfer, was present.
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From page 92... ...
Exceptions to this include the endocrine system, which may be especially vulnerable during adolescence; the musculoskeletal system, which has special vuInerabilities in both childhood and adolescence as compared with adulthood; and the brain, in which altered learning capacity may have more serious implications for a teen who still has much to learn, than for an adult, who has more fully completed the task of learning the essentials facts of life. · The fact that rapid cell growth occurs during adolescence has raised concerns that young workers may be particularly vulnerable to potential carcinogens, and to substances associated with diseases of long latency.
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From page 93... ...
Because the body grows in a disproportionate pattern, with bone growth preceding muscle, tendon, and ligament growth, some joints may experience limited ranges of motion (Nelson, 1992) , and injuries that would result in torn ligaments in adults may produce fractures of the growth plates in adolescents (Macy, 1992~.
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From page 94... ...
For example, the Consumer Product Safety Commission found that young, short, and light-weight operators of ride-on mowers were more likely than others to be injured (unpublished 1993 Consumer Product Safety Commission data, as cited in National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1997~. Specifically, operators were at increased risk of injury if their height was less than 60 inches, weight was less than 125 pounds, or their age was less than 15.
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From page 95... ...
Some indicated that they perform tasks they know to be dangerous or in violation of child labor laws out of fear of losing their jobs. Unfortunately, these may be tasks for which they are not developmentally ready.
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From page 96... ...
Having a job during the school week may decrease the amount of sleep an adolescent gets. Students who work more than 20 hours per week stay up later and sleep fewer hours per night than do those 4Tanner Stages rate maturation and secondary sex characteristics of adolescents.
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From page 97... ...
It is also possible that lapses in performance because of sleepiness play a role in the injury rates of adolescents. There is evidence that insufficient sleep is associated with moodiness, irritability, and difficulty in modulating impulses and emotions (Carskadon et al., 1989; DahI, 1996; Pilcher and Huffcutt, 1996~.
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From page 98... ...
The concern over the validity of the record-keeping, and thus the information submitted to BES, increased in 1981, when the Occupational Safety and Health Administration exempted industries with below-average injury rates from its general-schedule inspections. A redesigned survey was fully implemented in 1992.
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From page 99... ...
, collects information on product-related injuries from a national probability sample of 91 hospital emergency departments. The NElSS covers not only injuries sustained by individuals who are engaging in paid work, but also injuries suffered by those performing volunteer work for organized groups.
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From page 100... ...
. One limitation of NEISS is that it covers only injuries treated in hospital emergency departments, which comprise only an estimated one-third of all work-related injuries (Ries, 1978; Unpublished tabulations, 1988 National Health Interview Survey, Occupational Supplement, NIOSH)
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From page 101... ...
(1997) used NHAMCS data to study the incidence, characteristics, and payments of child and adolescent emergency department visits by narrow age groupings.
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From page 102... ...
data on the extent of work by young people and on work-related injuries could be helpful in targeting inspections and studying injury rates. Many states oversee health and safety inspections of workplaces, but do not have the resources to mount a surveilIance system, so they need better information to target those .
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From page 103... ...
There are four key sources of federal data on work-related fatalities: · Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries; · National Traumatic Occupational Fatality Surveillance Sys tem; · Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Program; and · Integrated Management Information System. Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOl)
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From page 104... ...
In 1993, homicides accounted for 28 percent of the work-related deaths of 16- and 17-year-ofUs recorded in CFOT (Toscano and Windau, 1994) , compared with 10 percent of the work-related deaths from 1980 to 1989, as recorded in the National Traumatic Occupational Fatality surveillance system (NTOF)
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From page 105... ...
Information about whether safety or child labor laws were being violated during the fatal incidents is not systematically recorded. Another problem in using data from CFOI to assess the fatal injuries among young workers is that the rates presented by BES in its standard reports are misleading.
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From page 106... ...
The NTOF surveillance system predates the CFOI by 10 years. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Bureau of Labor Statistics are working to merge the two systems.
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From page 107... ...
Although a large number of young workers' deaths occur in agriculture, the industry is little investigated by OSHA. Although IMIS does not include all work-related deaths of children, it offers the ability to match violations of safety and child labor laws with deaths.
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From page 108... ...
5651 Ibis. Current child labor laws demand a higher degree of safety for those under the age of 18 by prohibiting them from engaging in jobs determined to be hazardous by the Secretary of Labor.
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From page 109... ...
It is reasonable to assume that occupational injuries suffered by youngsters are less likely to be recognized as work-related than are those suffered by adults. The potential for systematic omission of injured youths from existing occupational injury surveillance systems has not been rigorously evaluated.
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