A 15-year-old recent immigrant from Guatemala is killed out of ignorance and noncompliance with basic regulations as he gets entangled in a pizza dough mixing machine while attempting to clean it as it is on. A 16-year-old working after 11 p.m. is assaulted as a cashier at a sandwich shop and robbed. A 17-year old is harmlessly cleaning metal molds for plastic containers when overexposure to a cleaning chemical given to him by his supervisor leaves him dead inside a mold which his coworkers find him in the next morning. Every year, 70 families have to hear about how their children, while innocently gaining work experience, die because of simple failures to adhere to safety regulations and 84,000 more such families must also standby in agony as their child is put into a hospital emergency room due to work-related injuries.
What is the root of this tragedy and injustice? Like so many other problems, ignorance. Teen workers are often unaware of the regulations they must follow on the job or the safety hazards involved. Moreover, zealous employers are often apathetic about notifying and ensuring that their workers are aware of such safety rules before work, in the sole interest of making money and getting the job done. Young workers have powers; we can use unions to pressure employers into enhancing safety regulations and use prohibitory laws, such as that on the operation of bakery equipment for minors that would have saved the Guatemalan’s life, to only do work within the scope of our abilities and understanding.
Yet even simpler, it is imperative that young workers simply take the initiative and both make sure they know about the hazards they might face on the job and have a talk with their employer about what they can and cannot do. Laws and regulations are great for threatening businesses and coercing them through fear of penalties into proper conduct, but the truth of the matter remains: teen safety problems will continue to occur if teens do not make a conscious effort to consider safety in all that they do.
Consider the plight of the Guatemalan immigrant mentioned earlier, José. If he had been told explicitly never to turn a machine on while cleaning it, especially one of such caliber, he could be living today. Yet to go back even further, the teen should not have been touching a machine that could mangle a person whole as per New Jersey (the location of the incident) and federal law. If the employer had been aware of such law, it would be possible that he would refrain from allotting the immigrant the task in the first place. However, as a recent immigrant, it is likely the immigrant was unaware of his rights and limitations and also focused on gaining money for his family rather than his own safety – an admirable yet foolish act. Here, the employer could certainly have lazily ignored such prohibitions thinking that the immigrant would not deny doing the task due to his desire for pay and there was no chance for any harm to be done. Such an infringement of the law presumably occurred as 16-year old Donna worked after 11 p.m. well after the mandated times set by New York and federal regulations: an ardent employer unknowingly took advantage of a desperate teenager’s ignorance and put them at risk in a sandwich store late at night to prevent losing potential sales at that hour. The law cannot and will never be able to enforce the prevention of such haphazard decisions, which we all make at one point or another, with anything short of omnipresent government monitoring – a radical absurdity.
Even when employers exhort teens to do task that are lawful, such as cleaning some harmless metal molds, a teen is unsafe while he is unconcerned about the potential dangers that face him. Take the final example of the 17-year-old Robert. He was given instructions to dab some tetrachloroethylene, a hazardous chemical, on a rag cloth and wipe it on the molds. The chemical, when used in open air, is not particularly harmful, however, when a teen lifts the mold he wants to clean and puts his head too much into it as he wipes it with the chemical, the risk of excessive inhalation is great and life-threatening. Being provided with a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) or less toxic cleaner would have been helpful in avoiding the problem, yet an inherent concern for his well-being and consideration for the substances he is working with would have been much more essential in avoiding the tragic occurrence.
Thus, it is vital that kids are educated about the importance of safety in their specific field of work before entering the workplace so that economic gain does not shroud the conservation of human life. Teens need to take a careful look at the New York State and National Regulations as nycosh.org or osha.gov, respectively, talk with their employers and parents extensively about possible risks to their health. If necessary, mandated state or federal safety courses dependent on the specific field they care to work in or simple tests that could verify that teens are aware of the safety obstacles they might confront must be instated because the harsh reality of the situation is clear. It is wonderful that teens have the opportunity to earn money for their family and learn, in the process, such key values of responsibility, accountability, organization, and sociability that are not only key social skills but also ones that are fundamental to success in academic, athletic, and other fields. However, we cannot risk the safety of human health in the process. For teens and the young generation are especially key in the solution of the tumultuous problems that face our nation, and the unique talents and intellect that each person possess are invaluable assets such that it would be a shame to waste them due to simple worker negligence.
What is the root of this tragedy and injustice? Like so many other problems, ignorance. Teen workers are often unaware of the regulations they must follow on the job or the safety hazards involved. Moreover, zealous employers are often apathetic about notifying and ensuring that their workers are aware of such safety rules before work, in the sole interest of making money and getting the job done. Young workers have powers; we can use unions to pressure employers into enhancing safety regulations and use prohibitory laws, such as that on the operation of bakery equipment for minors that would have saved the Guatemalan’s life, to only do work within the scope of our abilities and understanding.
Yet even simpler, it is imperative that young workers simply take the initiative and both make sure they know about the hazards they might face on the job and have a talk with their employer about what they can and cannot do. Laws and regulations are great for threatening businesses and coercing them through fear of penalties into proper conduct, but the truth of the matter remains: teen safety problems will continue to occur if teens do not make a conscious effort to consider safety in all that they do.
Consider the plight of the Guatemalan immigrant mentioned earlier, José. If he had been told explicitly never to turn a machine on while cleaning it, especially one of such caliber, he could be living today. Yet to go back even further, the teen should not have been touching a machine that could mangle a person whole as per New Jersey (the location of the incident) and federal law. If the employer had been aware of such law, it would be possible that he would refrain from allotting the immigrant the task in the first place. However, as a recent immigrant, it is likely the immigrant was unaware of his rights and limitations and also focused on gaining money for his family rather than his own safety – an admirable yet foolish act. Here, the employer could certainly have lazily ignored such prohibitions thinking that the immigrant would not deny doing the task due to his desire for pay and there was no chance for any harm to be done. Such an infringement of the law presumably occurred as 16-year old Donna worked after 11 p.m. well after the mandated times set by New York and federal regulations: an ardent employer unknowingly took advantage of a desperate teenager’s ignorance and put them at risk in a sandwich store late at night to prevent losing potential sales at that hour. The law cannot and will never be able to enforce the prevention of such haphazard decisions, which we all make at one point or another, with anything short of omnipresent government monitoring – a radical absurdity.
Even when employers exhort teens to do task that are lawful, such as cleaning some harmless metal molds, a teen is unsafe while he is unconcerned about the potential dangers that face him. Take the final example of the 17-year-old Robert. He was given instructions to dab some tetrachloroethylene, a hazardous chemical, on a rag cloth and wipe it on the molds. The chemical, when used in open air, is not particularly harmful, however, when a teen lifts the mold he wants to clean and puts his head too much into it as he wipes it with the chemical, the risk of excessive inhalation is great and life-threatening. Being provided with a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) or less toxic cleaner would have been helpful in avoiding the problem, yet an inherent concern for his well-being and consideration for the substances he is working with would have been much more essential in avoiding the tragic occurrence.
Thus, it is vital that kids are educated about the importance of safety in their specific field of work before entering the workplace so that economic gain does not shroud the conservation of human life. Teens need to take a careful look at the New York State and National Regulations as nycosh.org or osha.gov, respectively, talk with their employers and parents extensively about possible risks to their health. If necessary, mandated state or federal safety courses dependent on the specific field they care to work in or simple tests that could verify that teens are aware of the safety obstacles they might confront must be instated because the harsh reality of the situation is clear. It is wonderful that teens have the opportunity to earn money for their family and learn, in the process, such key values of responsibility, accountability, organization, and sociability that are not only key social skills but also ones that are fundamental to success in academic, athletic, and other fields. However, we cannot risk the safety of human health in the process. For teens and the young generation are especially key in the solution of the tumultuous problems that face our nation, and the unique talents and intellect that each person possess are invaluable assets such that it would be a shame to waste them due to simple worker negligence.
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