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. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the case for safety podcast. Be sure to subscribe on Spotify. Or Apple podcasts and be sure to leave a review to help others find the show. You can also connect with us at p dot org. We'll see you next time.