TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Health Hazards of Child Labor A1 - Pollack, Susan H. A1 - Landrigan, Philip J. A2 - Wallace, Robert B. PY - 2017 T2 - Maxcy-Rosenau-Last Public Health and Preventive Medicine, 15e AB - Child labor or youth work is defined in the United States as employment of children less than 18 years of age. While adolescents under age 18 are usually thought of as students, by senior year of high school 75% of U.S. teens are also working in a formal setting as employees.1 More than five million U.S. children and adolescents are estimated to be legally employed after school, on weekends, and during the summer (U.S. Department of Labor). Several million more are believed to be employed under conditions that violate wage, hour, and safety regulations, and an uncounted additional segment work in areas that are not even covered by child labor laws.2 Even as freshmen at age 14, almost a quarter of students hold jobs, and work in informal arrangements such as yard work, babysitting, work in family, or community agriculture is common much earlier.3 Despite the existence of laws that are intended to protect them, the number of young U.S. workers under age 18 who die each year has remained relatively constant in the past few years at about 68 per year; rates of younger teen occupational death are actually rising,1 and more than 200,000 teens continue to be injured on the job every year.4 Child and adolescent work-related injuries and exposures and their resulting health effects are not just remnants of Dickensian history but remain an important public health issue in the twenty-first century, as the following cases illustrate. Each of the cases represents a sentinel health event, a single isolated event that serves as a marker for a whole group of youth at potential risk of exposure, injury, or death. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Medical CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/28 UR - accessbiomedicalscience.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1141971586 ER -