Published online August 31, 2007
PEDIATRICS Vol. 120 No. 3 September 2007, pp. 686 (doi:10.1542/peds.2007-1638)

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Adolescents’ Descriptions of Hazards in the Workplace: In Reply

Carol W. Runyan, PhD
University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7505
Department of Health Behavior and Health Education and Epidemiology
University of North Carolina School of Public Health
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7440
Department of Pediatrics
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7220

Myduc Ta, MPH
University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7505
Department of Epidemiology
University of North Carolina School of Public Health
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7435

Michael Schulman, PhD
University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7505
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8107
Departments of Health Behavior and Health Education and Epidemiology
University of North Carolina School of Public Health
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7440

We appreciate Woolf's letter, which amplifies the importance of our study¹ about the hazards in adolescent employment. He reiterates our caution that the results are likely an underrepresentation of the true risks, a function of potentially incomplete recall of exposures. We did, however, take precautions to address this potential problem by asking the teens to respond to questions about only 1 referent job that they held for at least 2 months during the most recent 12 months. If >1 job met the criterion, we asked about the most recent.

Woolf's earlier work demonstrated the role of toxins as hazards.² He also makes a useful point about the value of including "near-miss" situations. However, we did not capture that information, because that would have imposed even more recall issues without some form of daily diaries (a strategy future investigations should consider).

We did collect information about exposures to chemicals and use of protective equipment, including exposures to various potentially toxic substances such as fumes, foul-smelling odors, or thick smoke; flammable or explosive substances such as gasoline or petroleum products; pesticides, herbicides, or weed killers; solvents, paint thinners, or spray paint; and medical wastes. This will be examined in another article, but our preliminary findings demonstrate that the proportions of adolescent workers with some sort of toxic-chemical exposure is far from trivial, as Woolf et al have argued.²

As Woolf contends, much greater attention to the safety of youth work is required, including attention to toxic exposures. Pediatricians should try to identify such exposures as part of their care of adolescents and work with occupational health professionals to address workplace safety at the state and federal levels, address policy gaps, and establish legal safeguards. Regulatory authorities must have the resources to enforce laws to protect both youth and adult workers and hold employers responsible for their obligation to provide a safe workplace for all employees, with special attention to the needs of adolescents and other inexperienced workers.

As policies are developed or revised, we argue for using the best available evidence and, where evidence is sparse, relying on professional judgment with the balance, at least for adolescents, tipping in the direction of protectiveness. The burden of proof should fall on those who argue for minimizing or relaxing the standards of safety for young and vulnerable adolescent employees.

REFERENCES

1. Runyan CW, Schulman M, Dal Santo J, Bowling JM, Agans R, Ta M. Work-related hazards and workplace safety of US adolescents employed in the retail and service sectors. Pediatrics. 2007;119 :526 –534[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. Woolf A, Alpert HR, Garg A, Lesko S. Adolescent occupational toxic exposures: a national study. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2001;155 :704 –710[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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PEDIATRICS (ISSN 1098-4275). ©2007 by the American Academy of Pediatrics

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This Article Extract Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services E-mail this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to My File Cabinet Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Runyan, C. W. Articles by Schulman, M. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Runyan, C. W. Articles by Schulman, M. Related Collections Adolescent Medicine Social Bookmarking                         What's this?