Hello, everyone, and welcome to the case for
safety podcast. I'm your host Scott Fowler.
Appreciate being with us today where we're gonna
be discussing a topic that's been getting renewed
attention in recent months as it continues to
be a problem in the Us and around
the world. And that is exploit child labor.
You're gonna be, talking about, it, the the
scope of the problem,
the working conditions, children encounter, in different environments.
And most importantly, you know, what can be
done about it? You know, What can be
done to put an end to to this
practice? And Joining me for this conversation. I'm
glad to welcome Bob Drain and Barney Burns.
Bob is an adjunct professor and senior environmental
health safety officer at Liberty University,
and Barney is a certified safety professional with
more than 40 years of experience. Bob Barney
thank you both so much for being here.
Sure, Scott. Thank you.
Now,
part of this conversation stems from a recent
position statement that As
issued about exploit child labor, and what can
be done about it. So I thought we
get a start from there. And Bob, I
wonder if you kinda talk through that position
say y, As piece stance on this issue.
So first of all,
we the As American Society of safety professionals.
We... We are committed to the protection of
people and we have been since 19 11.
And you know, we consider ourselves to be
the guardians, quote, quote, up workplace safety.
Our ultimate goal is to have all workers
return hold to their loved ones, safe healthy
and well. Right?
Our vision, As
vision is safety health and well being
that they are inherent rights of every worker.
And
This includes child Labor as well.
So our position, the
Position on exploit
child labor.
We oppose all forms of exploit child labor
practices.
We call on government entities non government
organizations to combat
exploit child labor.
In the Us and even around the world.
As part of the position,
we support regulation and
legislation in the Us,
and even in other countries that prohibits and
prevent 6 pro,
child labor,
specific language in applicable global standards that oppose
and facilitate
prevention of exploit child labor,
and,
of course, actions by our members
and occupational safety and health professionals
On a global basis to establish an implement,
programs
prohibit
exploit
child labor.
So
1 note though that's that's very important to
understand is that we don't oppose
reasonable
approaches to young people working.
We realize that there are benefits and responsibilities
for working in
we'll talk a little bit about that here
shortly.
So our position is not meant to take
a stand against young people working appropriate hours
or in settings such as,
for example, the family part.
So
as our position statement says, we
or concerns specifically with exploit child labor practices,
and these include things like children working
full time or accumulation of weekly hours that
interfere with the child's ability to attend school
or even
educational
opportunities?
To expose them to long or hard physical
labor
or hazardous toxic working conditions.
And very young children. We define very young
children as being under the age of 12.
Our work activities that do not allow the
child to grow up.
To be healthy and productive.
Thank you for that. And that really leaves
a good foundation for the rest of our
conversation and transitions well into my next question,
You you touched on it a little bit
there. I thought we could get into the
terminology,
you gave a couple of points there. But
when we say exploit child labor, you know,
what exactly does that mean? And, you know,
how how big a problem is this both
in the Us and around the world?
Yeah. Good question. So
First, let's let's start out with what the
the
definition of exploit tate child labor.
According to world vision,
Child labor is the
exploitation of children who are deprived of their
childhood
by work that prevents them from attending school,
causes some type of physical, mental or social
harm to do.
According to the Il,
the international labor
organization, It's worked that's dangerous
or provides unhealthy conditions that could result in
a child being killed injured or made ill
as a consequence
a poor safety and health standards or working
arrangements.
Now,
you said what are some statistics
about child labor?
In the fiscal year 20 23,
the Us department of labor found a child
labor violations,
were evident in 955
cases, and that included 5792
children.
And they issued over 8000000
in penalties.
From a global standpoint, the Uni nsf
organization,
roughly,
a hundred and 60000000
children were subjected to child labor at the
beginning of 20 20.
And 9000000
additional children were at risk
due to the impact of Covid 19
in the year 20 20.
This accounts for nearly 1 and 10 and
children
worldwide.
Almost half of them are engaged in hazardous
work
that directly end ind their health and develop.
So you could see Scott that it's crucial
to address this problem and protect children's rights.
Absolutely. And you mentioned hazards there. I wonder,
Barney, if we could get into the more
specifically. I know,
Bob gave a couple examples earlier, but just
some of the the the conditions, you know,
the environments that these children are working in,
the the hazards they're facing, you know, as
well as you know is this is this
more common in certain industries or are there
are certain types of work that are more
likely to be you know, practicing exploit child
labor, the... Those kind of things.
Right. So
in the United States, that 1 of the
biggest concerns has to do with migrant and
labor
with the migrant workers
and the the the family
goes and picks the fruits and vegetables for
us.
Sometimes the conditions about sanitary, it it's oftentimes
hot, A lot of exposure, heat stress. Those
type of things.
Also in in a lot of industries
where they clean machinery
at night or, like, a third shift or
for teenagers working on on there.
I had an example of
an Eagle scout that was
summer working in a wood products facility,
and he slipped and he fell into a
wood, and, you know, he was gone within
a matter seconds.
So that... That's domestically the the type of
work that we want to avoid for for
children.
Internationally, it it it runs the full gamut
of all types of work.
1 that I... I'm familiar with by doing
reading
is cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
Basically, they have official mining sites that use
modern machinery and those type of things,
but a big majority of the cobalt mind
is done with artisan
mining practices
to basically,
fathers and sons,
go into a a hill of rocks, and
they dig in unsupported trenches.
They enter as a confined space
without adequate precautions such as fans and those
type of things, rescue equipment.
And then also the the young girls
They clean rocks in a pond or a
lake and air exposed to some of the
radioactive materials from from cleaning the the cobalt
minerals
those type of things. So it runs the
whole gamut both domestically and internationally.
As p is interested in
dealing with both
internationally as well as domestically. They're try to
make it as safe as possible for children.
At just a side note like, back in
the 19 thirties, 19 twenties and thirties in
Illinois and New York,
young women, teenage girls,
early 20 girls
were hard to paint valves for for aircraft,
and they used radiant paint,
and the the employers
failed to notify the girls of the potential
hazards are working with radioactive paints.
Those type of things that lu and paint.
The radioactive
materials made the paint lu and so they
could see the gauge in dials at night.
And that's what caused me to
become familiar with with this
issue
throughout the world.
Looking at what's ahead, what needs to happen.
What steps can be taken to stop this
kind of practice to make sure the in
the Us and throughout the world children aren't
exploited for their labor.
Well, if you look at some of the
global
organizations and what they recommend.
Our working in partnerships like Barney was talking
about,
with other employers to make sure that
workplaces are safe for children,
not hiring children to work in factories, that's
been well controlled over the the last,
probably hundred years or so, but still
It's alarming though, with the statistics that I
gave you so, the As,
our next steps to address exploit child labor
and that you may wanna consider in your
chapter,
the society needs to recruit authors.
First of all, to write articles and materials
to help educate our membership, so we need
that.
We need to advocate for the prohibition
of exploited child labor practices
on a global standard through our different standards
that we
Ans,
our As
standards, Iso 45000
1PZ
10. Those are some standards that we can
use to help advocate for the prohibition of
exploited child labor.
Also recommend
prohibit exploit child labor practices
that specifically
include third party
certifying systems like a Ans As
and iso.
Host and conduct complimentary
webinars on the issue for
Members and other interested people.
And then finally,
use As p's consultative status with the United
nations to raise
or support enhancement of efforts to increase awareness
on this issue.
When we look at the United Nations and
their
recommendations,
they say to help seek viable alternatives
and access to adequate services for children and
their families globally.
I like some of the things that the
United Nations wants to do
with exploit tate child labor.
Barney, any any steps you would encourage folks
out there to to take to try to,
you know, bring an end to this practice?
Yeah. As as we...
In our day to day e, lies, we
watch news and those type of things we
see
child labor being exploited that it would be
a good to to raise the awareness and
share it with the Ss, so we can
put it in the, like, professional safety magazine.
In as well as writing articles.
As he professionals,
Professionals are very much involved in the Es
solutions around the world,
encourage you to to talk to your Es
g professionals in your company and
make sure this supply chain is
certifying that the materials that you're getting from
your suppliers are free of child labor.
That's not always easy to do with tracking
systems, but we need to make an effort
and and try to certify the debts
child labor free.
Again, if
Ss members,
can speak on this topic very well for
the occupational safety hazards that children face,
and and they can go to their, like,
community rotary clubs and church meetings and those
type of things that to just get the
word out that this is a problem and
how can we find the solutions by working
together?
There's other occupational states and health organizations around
the world that As
partners with that that we could work with
to try to
encourage the the country's to implement effective child
labor things.
1 of the big things is making
education available to the young children
A, a lot of countries, the parents have
to pay a fee in order for their
children to go to school.
And you know, maybe maybe there's some opportunities
there to encourage
countries to have free educational systems that don't
have to pay fees. And a lot of
those fees because
the economic hardships that causes the parents to
encourage the kids to work in the in
the exploit labor.
So that's just for you this examples that
get the word out. The United Nations had
the year of the child in in 20
21.
And
it's been an an issue for for years
so you'll get some of the Io low
standards and stuffs that's in place. It just...
It's still happening.
So there... There's lots of opportunities for improvement
to try to address this issue.
Absolutely. And you both mentioned the Un there
and looking at it, you know, on a
local State national level, if you would encourage,
you know, safety professionals or whoever might be
listening out there, you know, to get in
touch with your legislators whether it's locally, your
state legislators or, you know, your your representatives
your senators to, you know, work to towards
even perhaps getting legislation passed to try to
bring an into a a lot of these
kind of practices.
Right. And there's in the National Safety Council
magazine,
recently had an article that a lot of
the states are loosening up, child labor restrictions
because of the shortage of labor in in
the tight labor market.
So,
that's that the local
input would be important.
Prevent some of that,
definitely.
Any any final thoughts either if you would
like to to share about, you know, the
the topic of exploit child labor in the
steps that folks out there can take to
help put a stop to this?
Well, I think Scott that,
you know, both both barney and myself have
put taking enough interest in this and have
enough concern about this topic to really try
to help our membership understand
you know, the dangers of exploit child labor
and the things that they can do to
help. So
we need more people with more passion about
it. And the more that we have that
and the more that our
organization interacts with other safety and health
organizations has
Barney had mentioned, I think we'll gain more
traction
and make it a safer place for our
children.
Yeah. And and there's some
excellent reading out there. The the book I
referred to was is called the Radian girls
dark story of America's shining women by Kate
H More. And when I read that, I...
You know, it it was in 19 twenties.
It was back of workers comp protections for
those women and those young girls.
Man, and it's... Right now, throughout the world
holders there's there's children working in similar
situations that those girls did in 19 twenties.
So that's an interesting book.
Another book is
cobalt red,
that talks about the Democratic Republic of Congo
mining of cobalt.
And then the Un, if you just Google,
you win
child exploit labor there's all kinds of articles.
Amnesty
International has all kinds of articles and and
videos and those type of things.
So it it wouldn't be hard to educate
yourself on this
situation and and think how you can make
a difference that to change to improve it
for a young child.
People are taking of these kids, and that's
what we need to stop.
Exactly. That's so what what this is all
about. And, yes. Definitely encourage or listeners to
take a look at those resources you mentioned.
And,
Bob, you noted, you. I'd need more people
with
it, you know, to be passionate about this
issue. I really appreciate the passion that both
of you have and the work that you
have done and continue to do to raise
awareness of this so we can bring, a
stop to this practice in the Us around
the world and I really appreciate you both
coming on to share your thoughts about how
we can do that. So thank you again.
Thank you Scott. Thank you.
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