Many U.S. teens face job hazards: study

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - U.S. teenagers with part-time jobs commonly work under potentially dangerous conditions, often performing tasks that are prohibited by law, researchers reported Monday.

In a national survey of nearly 1,000 working teenagers, researchers found that the teens frequently performed tasks that put them at risk of injury and in many cases violated child labor laws.

Overall, 52 percent of boys and 43 percent of girls performed at least one prohibited task, including using dangerous equipment like box crushers, slicers and dough mixers, and selling or serving alcohol.

The study also found that of teenagers younger than 16, 37 percent worked after 7 p.m. on a school night, in violation of federal law.

"Teens are exposed to multiple hazards, use dangerous equipment despite federal prohibitions, and work long hours during the school week," the study authors report in the journal Pediatrics.

The implication for parents, said lead study author Dr. Carol W. Runyan, is that they need to be aware of what their children are doing at work.

"They need to know what the child labor laws are in their state," said Runyan, a researcher at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

"But more importantly," she told Reuters Health, "they need to ask their kids what tasks they're performing at work, and maybe visit the workplace and meet the manager."

The study did not investigate teenagers' rates of on-the-job injuries. But the federal government estimates that roughly 200,000 teenagers are hurt at work every year.

These latest findings are based on telephone interviews with 928 U.S. teenagers ages 14 to 18 who worked in retail and service jobs. Over the previous school year, Runyan's team found, the teens had worked an average of 16 hours per week, with most working past 7 p.m. on school nights.

Boys were more likely than girls to do physically demanding tasks, like heavy lifting or working at heights, but girls were more likely to handle cash in their jobs -- a task that could put them at risk of robbery, the study authors point out.

Of particular concern is that many teenagers lack safety training and often work without adult supervision, according to the researchers.

About one-third of the teens surveyed said they'd had no safety training, Runyan's team notes, and even when they did have training, it often failed to address critical situations, such as what to do in the event of a robbery.

In addition, one-quarter of teens said they worked at least one day a week with no adult supervision.

Employers, Runyan said, need to realize that even when they are following child labor laws, the tasks they assign to teenagers -- like working alone or with no adult on site -- may not be appropriate.

"Some would argue that the laws need to be strengthened," she said, noting that Massachusetts recently passed a law prohibiting minors from working past 8 p.m. without adult supervision.

The bottom line, according to Runyan, is that teenagers' on-the-job safety needs more attention. "It's too important to not get careful consideration," she said.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, March 2007.