The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #43701

Chris Miara, MS, Education Development Center, Inc., 55 Chapel Street, Newton, MA 02458, 617-618-2238, cmiara@edc.org, Diane Bush, MPH, Labor Occupational Health Program, UC Berkeley, University of California at Berkeley, 2223 Fulton Street, 4th Floor, Berkeley, CA 94720-5120, and Robin Dewey, MPH, Labor Occupational Health Program, University of California, Berkeley, 2223 Fulton St., 4th Floor, Berkeley, CA 94720-5120.

Approximately 100,000 15-17 year olds visit emergency departments for workplace injuries every year.1 During 1996-1998, 2.9M 15-17 year olds worked during the school year and 4M worked in the summer.2 Teens increasingly enter the workforce through school-to-career (StC) programs, serving all students; Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs), serving high-risk youth; and transition programs (TP), serving youth with developmental disabilities. StC, WIB, and TP staff, responsible for the safety of the youth they place in jobs, lack occupational safety training and tools. Therefore, teens do not receive information on child labor laws, workplace hazards, and speaking up about concerns at work. OSHA funded the Young Worker Safety Resource Center (YWSRC) to develop and institutionalize training-of-trainer (ToT) programs for StC, WIB, and TP staff and their collaborating employers. In year1, YWSRC staff worked with state agencies, unions and employers in five states to institutionalize young worker training. YWSRC created a state-specific teacher's guide for a three-hour high school curriculum; identified and trained state-level master trainers; identified programs into which StC, WIB, and TP staff training could be integrated; and provided ToTs. Over 600 school- and community- based job trainers and teachers received ToTs. These teachers and trainers subsequently documented teaching over 2000 students. Teachers report a variety of ways students have used the information at work, and pre-post tests reveal an increase in knowledge about laws and hazard identification. In year 2, the initial 5 states are institutionalizing the training into ongoing programs, and the YWSRC is working in 3 additional states.

Learning Objectives: Participants in this session will be able to

• Describe three factors that place young workers at risk of injury
• Identify key information about workplace safety that young workers and their employers need to know and identify several tools for delivering that information
• List three state-level programs through which occupational safety trainers can reach professionals who place youth in jobs

Keywords: Adolescents, Occupational Safety

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.