A recently published study by a researcher in the West Virginia University School of Public Health found that more than half of young worker deaths in North Carolina resulted from employers violating the child labor laws. "This is in line with prior work we have done on child labor violations on a national level," said Kimberly Rauscher, M.A., Sc.D., lead author of the study and assistant professor in the WVU Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences and faculty affiliate with the WVU Injury Control Research Center. "From our prior results, we estimate that annually as many as 888,000 youth may be employed in violation of the Hazardous Occupations Orders, the laws that limit the types of jobs and tasks that youth under age 18 can perform." In the North Carolina study, medical examiner records were used to identify work-related deaths among children and adolescents ages 11-17 between 1990 and 2008 and associated child labor violations. Investigations from state and federal Departments of Labor were used to determine inspection activity, identify Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations and confirm child labor violations. The study also found that few of the fatalities were investigated by the agencies that enforce the child labor laws and OSHA standards. "This is very problematic because if these agencies do not investigate the employers involved cannot be held accountable," Dr. Rauscher said. "Legally, it is the employers' responsibility to ensure that their young employees are working within the bounds of the child labor laws. It is not the child's responsibility."
Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-adolescents-dangerous-environments-child-labor.html
