As many as 300 children a year may be killed while working in the U.S.; an unknown number suffer nonfatal injuries on the job. Current information on occupational injuries in children is based entirely on death certificates or workmen's compensation reporting. Both sources are known to contain extensive and biased underreporting for children. Many children are working illegally, """"""""off-the-books"""""""", or in hazardous conditions including, but not limited to, those inappropriate for the child's health and developmental status. Determination of high risk occupations and incidence and severity of non-fatal injuries has been made a priority in the injury control and pediatric emergency treatment communities. Current policy questions on effects of 'school-to-work' programs require supporting baseline data on current work practices and injuries. NICHD staff are working collaboratively across Federal Agencies to determine the incidence of non-fatal injuries occurring to children in the workplace by occupational category exposure time. Dr. Dunn is completing a study of occupational exposure time for adolescents ages 15-18 from the Census Bureau Survey of Income and Program Productivity (SIPP) as part of her doctoral dissertation. Her work will be used to provide unique and relatively unbiased exposure data for future epidemiological studies. The findings were presented to the Institute of Medicine / National Academy of Science Committee on Child Labor by Dr. Overpeck in June, 1997. Dr. Overpeck prepared injury questions that were fielded in the SIPP in 1995. This will enable researchers to target interventions effectively by identifying both high risk children and high risk occupational categories. Dr. Overpeck will use the preliminary work on exposures prepared by Dr. Dunn to evaluate the injury data that will be available for the first time in 1998.
