Global Efforts: Youth and Hazardous Work

A workshop sponsored recently by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health brought together professionals in health and safety and youth employment to share practices for protecting children and youth from hazardous work worldwide. The one-day workshop was hosted in Washington, D.C. in support of World Day Against Child Labor, observed annually on June 12 since 2002.

The aim of the workshop was to strengthen and expand collaborative efforts globally to prevent young children from being drawn into hazardous work and to protect youth of legal working age from exploitative and dangerous conditions.

Participants discussed good practices and strategies used around the world to combat hazardous child labor through education, engagement, empowerment, and enforcement. They also looked at introducing occupational health and safety language into international applications for funding, producing a publication highlighting key practices, and developing new partnerships.

In the U.S. an estimated 146,000 workers aged 15-to-17 years old are likely to sustain occupational injuries and illnesses each year. In 2009, 27 youths under the age of 18 died from work-related injuries.

For more information: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/updates/upd-06-02-11.html