| Redding National
Hazards at
work an issue for teens
1 in 6 with
a job report an injury, survey finds
By Lee
Bowman, Scripps Howard News Service
August 25, 2006
One in six
working teens reported being injured on the job in a new survey that
found some youths were in hazardous occupations they should have
been barred from because of their age.
The study, published in the
September-October issue of the American Journal of Health Behavior,
was based on the results of a questionnaire completed by more than
6,800 Wisconsin high school students in 2003.
Slightly more than half of the students
reported having a job, with 514 getting injured at work, including
150 injured severely enough that their activities at home, work or
school were affected for more than three days. Ninety-seven filed
for workers' compensation.
"The findings clearly indicate that
work-related injuries among youth are a significant health problem,"
said Kristina Zierold, an assistant professor of family medicine at
Wake Forest University School of Medicine and lead author of the
study. "Developing programs and strategies to reduce injury must be
made a priority."
Zierold conducted the survey with Dr.
Henry Anderson, chief medical officer for the Wisconsin Division of
Public Health, while she was working as an epidemiologist for the
federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The research was
funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
The researchers noted that,
nationwide each year, approximately 70 children die from injuries
inflicted at work, hundreds are hospitalized and tens of thousands
require treatment in hospital emergency rooms. The National
Pediatric Trauma Registry and the National Center for Health
Statistics report that occupational injuries are the fourth-leading
cause of death among workers ages 10 to 19.
The survey showed that the jobs most
likely to lead to teen injury were in lumber mills (where 51 percent
who worked there reported an on-the-job-injury); lumberyards (40
percent); manufacturing (37 percent); gas stations (36 percent);
someone else's farm (36 percent); and construction (30 percent).
Zierold noted that some of those jobs
-- or certain tasks within those jobs -- should have been off-limits
to teens.
Most teens in the survey worked in
more traditional settings -- restaurants, baby-sitting, lawn care,
and retail and grocery stores.
The survey found the teens work
between five hours a week and more than 40 hours a week. About 16
percent of those who worked reported putting in more than 23 hours a
week, and 159, or 4 percent, said they clocked out after 11 on
school nights.
"We surmise that working later hours
may involve circumstances that place teens at greater risk for
occupational injury," Zierold said. Late at night, after managers
have gone home, "teens may be asked to perform more prohibited or
hazardous tasks than when supervisors are present."
Training for most jobs that teens are
hired to do is perfunctory, with little emphasis on safety.
"Training usually consists of another worker explaining how to do
the work and how to run the equipment, without emphasis on safety
issues," Zierold said.
"Because so many high school students
are working during the school year, we advocate introducing a
safety-training course within the school health curriculum ...
appropriate to students' age and developmental levels.
"Training would emphasize how to
identify work-related hazards, how to protect themselves from
hazards and how to address supervisors with safety concerns. With
safety training, teens could feel empowered at the workplace by
knowing their rights and how to protect themselves," she added.
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