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From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:
Despite federal regulations intended to protect them, many teenagers in the U.S. use dangerous equipment or work long hours during the school week, according to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study.
The results show 52 percent of males and 43 percent of females use dangerous equipment such a box crushers and slicers, or serve and sell alcohol where it is consumed, despite federal child labor laws prohibiting these practices.
Additionally, 84 percent of females and 61 percent of males handle cash in their jobs, exposing them to risks associated with robberies.
Homicides during robberies were the cause of up to one half of all youth fatalities in the retail trade.
Our aim is to examine the conditions under which they are working, and suggest ways to protect them at work," said lead study author Carol Runyan, Ph.D., director of UNC's Injury Prevention Research Center (IPRC) and professor of health behavior and health education in the UNC School of Public Health.
Many teens younger than 16 years old reported working after 7 p.m. on school nights, which is illegal, Runyan said, and suggests the need for better enforcement of child labor laws.
About one third of the teens surveyed said they had not received any safety training, Runyan said.
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Posted on March 6, 2007 12:22 AM
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