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PubMed2006

Work hazards and workplace safety violations experienced by adolescent construction workers.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the working conditions of adolescents employed in construction in North Carolina, documenting hazards, safety practices, and prohibited activities. DESIGN: A cross-sectional telephone survey. SETTING: North Carolina. PARTICIPANTS: Adolescents (aged <18 years) with work permits for the construction industry in North Carolina during summer 2001. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Types of jobs, work tasks, supervisory conditions, tools, equipment, and processes. RESULTS: A total of 187 survey respondents were in this study. Adolescents were employed in varied construction settings and business types. Nineteen of the 187 permitted workers were younger than 16 years, despite prohibitions against their employment in construction unless working for their parents. The remainder (n = 168) were working legally based on age, but most performed prohibited tasks. In fact, 84% of all the 16- to 17-year-olds had performed at least 1 clearly prohibited task and 47% had performed 3 or more. Although most reported being supervised and working with others, approximately 19% of all respondents reported working where they were not in hearing distance of other workers. Data were collected from teenagers with work permits, suggesting that these adolescents may work for more responsible employers. If violations of child labor laws exist in this group, it is likely that adolescents without permits are exposed to even greater hazards and violations. CONCLUSION: Involvement of teenagers in dangerous and/or prohibited tasks is cause for concern and suggests a pressing need to examine the enforcement of existing laws and the need for additional protection.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Improving safety for teens working in the retail trade sector: opportunities and obstacles.

BACKGROUND: Using both quantitative and qualitative data, this study examined teen workers' perceptions about their work environments and the ways in which teens believe workplaces can be made safer. METHODS: We conducted telephone interviews (n = 117) and six focus groups (n = 49) with two separate samples of North Carolina teens who worked in the retail trade sector. RESULTS: Survey findings indicate one-fifth of teens used equipment they thought dangerous; nearly 40% always or often felt rushed at work; and about half received training on how to avoid injury. Teens in the focus groups expressed concerns about workplace physical hazards, the threat of assault, being rushed, and having little power in the work environment. They also indicated that their workplace safety training was ineffective and that child labor laws were unnecessary. CONCLUSIONS: In order to be effective, interventions targeted at working teens need to address the organization of work and adolescent-manager interaction patterns.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMed2002

Role of work permits in teen workers' experiences.

BACKGROUND: Work permits are required for working teenagers under 18 in 41 US states, but little is known about the work experience of those with work permits compared with those without such permits. This study examines job hazards, training, and knowledge of child labor laws reported by students in a predominantly Latino high school in Los Angeles and compares the responses of those who obtained work permits with those who did not. METHODS: Student responses to a 60 item questionnaire were supplemented with information from focus groups and a survey of work permits issued by the school. RESULTS: Students without work permits were more likely to perform hazardous tasks and to use certain types of dangerous equipment and less likely to receive health and safety training than those with permits. CONCLUSION: Possible explanations for the findings and suggested areas in need of policy change or research are considered.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

A detailed analysis of work-related injury among youth treated in emergency departments.

Telephone interviews were conducted with 146 14- to 16-year-olds who incurred an occupational injury treated in an emergency department during the period July through September 1992. Thirty-two percent of the injuries occurred as the result of using equipment. Over half the workers reported not having received prior training on how to avoid injury. The injury limited normal activities for at least 1 day for 68% of the youth and for more than a week for 25%, corresponding to an estimated 6,208 (95% CI: 4,277, 8,139) and 2,639 (95% CI: 1,580, 3,699) youths nationwide, respectively. Employment in retail trades, equipment use, lack of training, and burn injuries were associated with increased limitation of normal activities. Nineteen percent of the youths appear to have been injured in jobs declared to be hazardous, or typically prohibited for their age (14- and 15-year-olds) under federal child labor laws. The prohibited job directly contributed to the injury in 64% of these cases.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMed1997

Pesticide use, exposure, and risk: A joint Israeli-Palestinian perspective.

The major predictors of health risk from pesticide exposure are quantity and toxicity of pesticides reaching end-users, field workers, and persons (including children) with casual and indirect exposures to field and food residues, drift, and contaminated groundwater. Past work in Israel and the Palestinian National Authority has documented risks for acute poisoning, daily illness, transient neurotoxic effects, and potential cancer hazards in workers, populations exposed to pesticide drift, and the general population. Risk assessment predicts that reduction in use of agents with high toxicity and pesticide substitution are desired strategies for achieving the largest reductions in risk, but successful implementation and program sustainability depend on maintaining crop yield and increasing farmer earnings. A joint pilot Israeli-Palestinian-NGO program aims to determine whether crop yields and profits can be sustained while reducing pesticide use, promoting integrated pest management, and restricting ecosystem damage. The project involves six components: (1) assessments of health risk and crop yield in relation to pesticide use and exposure; (2) training health-agricultural teams to introduce and evaluate crop growth and managements with reduced pesticide use; (3) tracing and stopping import and trade in banned or restricted pesticides; (4) restricting child labor; (5) promoting information delivery and worker and community right-to-know and right-to-act; and (6) establishing a uniform regional standard for protection of workers and the general public. Preliminary evidence (organochlorines and breast cancer, organophosphates and illness in field workers) indicates that (1) a reduction of use is the foremost determinant of a reduction in health risk; (2) cotton yield can be increased despite a reduction in pesticide use (organophosphates); and (3) a reduction in pesticide use (organophosphates and organochlorines) has to be part of a crop rotation program for food crops timed to seasonal fluctuations in supply, demand, and crop price.

Agricultural Workers' Diseases↗
PubMed2005

Potential for violence against teenage retail workers in the United States.

PURPOSE: To examine the working conditions of teenagers in five sites, examining the presence of factors associated with workplace violence and considering workers' concerns about safety and training to deal with violent circumstances. METHODS: Teenage workers, aged 14-17 years, with employment experience in retail industries in five sites (North Carolina; Brockton, Massachusetts; Los Angeles, California; Oakland, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) were questioned. Data in North Carolina were collected by telephone interview. Parallel data from the other sites were obtained using self-administered questionnaires in schools. RESULTS: Teenage retail workers report experiences that include working alone, at night, and/or without supervisors present. Training about angry customers, robbery, and sexual harassment is less than complete. Yet, teenage retail workers express few concerns about safety. CONCLUSIONS: Most teenagers work while attending high school, with over half employed in the retail trades. Those working in retail experience higher rates of workplace violence than other workers, mostly during robberies. Working alone and at night are risk factors for violent victimization. Findings indicate areas of potential improvement in child labor practices, particularly with respect to training and supervision.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Account-giving for a corporate transgression influences moral judgment: when those who "spin" condone harm-doing.

Generating some types of accounts-justifications, excuses, or apologies--for an organization's harm-doing increases condoning of a transgression compared with generating denials or not having to explain a transgression. In Experiment 1. students (N = 324) were required either to explain a corporation's use of child labor to manufacture its products or merely to read about it. Explaining decreased condemnation of the offense compared with when no explanation was required. In Experiment 2, students (N = 101) either justified the corporation's harm-doing or denied that the corporation had harmed employees, with justifications increasing condoning more than denials. In Experiment 3, students (N = 113) either wrote an apology or wrote a denial, with apologizers condoning harm-doing more than deniers. Differences appear to be due to some accounts eliciting cognitive elaboration on the misdeed.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Comparative description of migrant farmworkers versus other students attending rural south Texas schools: substance use, work, and injuries.

CONTEXT: Little is known about substance use, work characteristics, and injuries of youth from migrant farmworker families. Some evidence suggests that migrant youth may be at greater risk for substance use and work-related injuries than nonmigrant youth. PURPOSE: The aim of this study is to compare substance use, employment, and injury data from migrant and nonmigrant youth residing in rural South Texas. METHODS: Anonymous cross-sectional survey data were collected from 7,302 middle and 3,565 high school students during a regular class. Classification as a migrant student occurred if the student responded positively to: "Does your family move around the state or nation to pick fruits or vegetables for work?" RESULTS: About 5% of South Texas middle and high school students reported belonging to a migrant family. Compared to nonmigrant students, migrant youth were more likely to report frequent substance use. Youth belonging to migrant families were less likely to work for pay on weekends but more likely to work for pay on weekday mornings before school. These youth were also more likely to have ever been injured while working than nonmigrant students. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate a need for additional interventions in this most vulnerable rural population. Specifically, targeted educational programs to enhance the occupational safety and health of migrant youth, further research into effective substance abuse treatment and prevention programs in rural areas, and enhancement of child labor laws are recommended.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Education, skills, and working environments of workers in India's rural industry.

Based on a mix of official data and results of a survey conducted in May-June 2000 as part of an ongoing Swedish-Indian-Chinese collaborative study, this paper describes the working conditions of workers engaged in rural industry in India. First, it reports the education and skills of such workers. Educational attainment is presented in terms of both general and technical education. The role played by public institutions in the development of skills is examined. A view of the environment in which these workers work, on the one hand, and the physical/economic conditions of work, on the other, is then developed. Locational and gender disparities are illustrated by rural-urban and male-female comparisons to the extent that the available data permit. Child labor is briefly discussed. The findings are disturbing. The authors offer suggestions for improvement.

China↗
PubMed1995

Could you starve to death in England in 1839? The Chadwick-Farr controversy and the loss of the "social" in public health.

The public health field has long been pulled in two directions, either toward a narrower biomedical mission to control infectious disease or toward a broader mission to address the social and economic factors that adversely affect health and wellbeing. This paper explores as an instance of this tension an 1839 controversy between the statistician William Farr and the pioneering sanitary reformer Edwin Chadwick on the role of starvation as a cause of death. Farr thought hunger contribution significantly to many deaths; Chadwick wanted Farr to concentrate on the diseases from which people actually died. The paper then considers what the "constitutional" disease theories, which underlay Farr's concerns, implied for public health using medical testimony on child labor in industrial revolution factories as an illustration. An exploration of this constitutional medicine may help provide a "useable past" for modern public health workers interested in broadening the scope of public health.

England↗
PubMed2000

The health effects of economic sanctions and embargoes: the role of health professionals. Ethics and Human Rights Committee.

As a widely used tool of foreign policy, economic sanctions take many forms. They include mandating trade restrictions (for example, limiting imports from or exports to a sanctioned nation), freezing bank accounts, limiting international travel to and from an area, imposing additional tariffs, and exerting other pressures that are intended to slow key economic activities. Since the end of the Cold War, as the global market has expanded, many countries and the United Nations have increasingly used economic sanctions instead of military intervention to compel nations to end civil or extraterritorial war or to reduce abuse of human rights. Similarly, the United States has attempted to influence international governments' domestic policies by using other economic means, such as relating "most favored nation" trading status to a country's human rights record or prohibiting the import of goods from countries in which illegal child labor is widespread. Repercussions from these measures influence a country's economic development and, therefore, can also affect the overall welfare of a nation's population. In contrast to war's easily observable casualties, the apparently nonviolent consequences of economic intervention seem like an acceptable alternative. However, recent reports suggest that economic sanctions can seriously harm the health of persons who live in targeted nations. For this reason, the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine has undertaken this examination of physicians' roles in addressing the health effects of economic sanctions.

Economics↗
PubMed1999

Collaboration between developing and developed countries and between developing countries in occupational health research and surveillance.

Collaborative occupational health and safety studies between counterparts in developing and developed countries and between developing countries have demonstrated their potential for improving occupational health and safety. Such collaboration in occupational health and safety is encouraged in the development of infrastructure in research empowerment and capacity building. This action includes the setting of priorities, the identification and documentation of problems, sponsorship, data bases and surveillance systems, technical support, methodology, publishing, research and training programs, controlled intervention, information exchange, and networking. Examples of priorities in occupational health and safety in the developing world include the informal sector (informally hired and independent workers), temporary work, pesticides, accidents, dusts, carcinogens, solvents, ergonomics, women and child labor, human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiencey syndrome (HIV/AIDS), and transfer of hazardous materials and technologies. The sustainability of occupational health and safety structures and functions in the developing countries is a primary concern. Socioethical principles emphasize local, national, mutual and global gains. Examples of collaboration are given. Pervasive problems and strategies toward their solution are highlighted.

Developed Countries↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Occupational health in Mexico.

The authors discuss the maquiladoras and child labor, and offer an overview of the history of occupational safety and health in Mexico that covers laws and regulations, social security, unions, and enforcement of legislation. The organization and structure of the various institutions responsible for occupational safety and health (OSH), as well as administrative procedures, are described. This article concludes with a list of the new challenges for OSH in Mexico.

Accidents, Occupational↗
PubMed2002

[Gastric cancer in pregnancy--a case report].

Authors describe a case of gastric carcinoma diagnosed during 27th week of pregnancy in 27-year-old woman with mild gastrointestinal symptoms in second and third trimester accompanied with severe anemia. Gastrofiberoscopy with a biopsy confirmed a diagnosis of diffused gastric adenocarcinoma. Sudden symptoms of premature labour in 33-rd week of pregnancy finished with a premature labor. Child died a day after and the patient died 6 days after the labour because of diffused neoplasmatic changes. Authors suggest that gastrofiberoscopy should always be considered if pregnant woman in second or third trimester has still gastrointestinal symptoms and anemia which is not explained.

Adenocarcinoma↗
PubMed2005

Occupational health nursing in Brazil: exploring the world through international occupational health programs.

1. Brazil's recent industrialization has led to the recognition of occupational health nursing as an important, emerging field. 2. Major occupational health concerns in Brazil include occupational illness and accidents, slavery, and child labor. 3. Legislation must be reformed to allow for the expansion of occupational health practice to include preventive measures as well as the assistance measures currently seen in Brazilian occupational health.

Brazil↗