Factory work harms children - Hesperian Health Guides (2024)

HealthWiki > Workers' Guide to Health and Safety > Chapter 24: Children who work > Factory work harms children

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Workers' Guide to Health and Safety

This content is from pages 350 to 353 of Workers' Guide to Health and Safety

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Young people who work

Child labor is work done by children that harms their health, their development, or their education. Child laborers are usually younger than the age allowed for regular work in their country, and are usually working when they should be in school. Child labor is less common inside factories, but child laborers often do factory work at home or in smaller workshops.

Many countries allow school-age children to do some work, usually around the home or in a family business. Laws may limit the type of work school-age children can do and the hours they can work. When children are not exposed to chemicals or dangerous conditions, and have enough time to go to school, study, play and rest, the work they do usually does not harm them.

Young workers are between 15 and 18 years old, and have regular jobs in a country where the legal age for work is under 18. Young workers may no longer be "children" in the eyes of the law, but they do not yet have the skills and judgment of older workers. Their bodies and minds are continuing to grow, and exposure to chemicals and repetitive work affects them more than it does older workers. Often the need to earn money effectively ends the possibility for further education. For these reasons, factory work is more harmful for them than adults.

Children are injured more often than adults

Some factory owners hire children for certain jobs because they think they have nimble fingers. However, children are at greater risk of becoming injured because they are smaller and do not have as much control as adults over their bodies and movements. Machines, tools, and workstations are designed for adults, not children’s smaller bodies.

Dangers that affect children more than adults

Noise: Young workers are more at risk of hearing loss than adults. Noise exposure limits set for adults are not safe for children. See Chapter 13: Noise.

Heat: Young workers also have a lower heat tolerance than adults. A safe environment for an adult might not be safe for a child. (See Chapter 15: Heat and cold.)

Heavy work: Heavy work may place excessive stress on growing bones and might cause bone damage or impaired growth.

Chemicals: Children are more easily and seriously harmed by chemicals because:

Their bodies are smaller so they receive a proportionally higher dose of toxics than adults when exposed to the same amount.
Their bodies are growing and are more vulnerable to damage caused by toxic chemicals. Toxic exposure at work can harm children’s growing organs, hormonal balances, and skin, and increase their risk of cancers.
Their bones and bodies absorb lead, other metals, and fumes faster than adult bodies do, which can cause learning and developmental problems.
They breathe faster than adults, which makes it more likely that they will get sick from indoor and outdoor air pollution.
They are closer to the ground and are more likely to eat, breathe, or touch chemicals that drift to the ground.

Physical development harmed

Working children suffer growth problems and slowed physical development because of:

Children exposed to toxics may learn slowly, be irritable and restless, or show other signs of slow development.

Lack of activity: Child workers often cannot play, explore their neighborhood, or interact with other children. Neither do they rest as much as they need to for healthy physical development.Exposure to toxics: Working children exposed to toxics can have health problems such as headaches, difficulty breathing, long-term reproductive problems, cancers, or even death. Toxics can also harm a young person’s ability to learn.

Lack of food: Some children work so the family can eat. Yet children working in factories often put off meals while working or to meet production targets. Malnourished children can have poorer health, loss of vision, stunted growth, learning disabilities, and less energy compared to other children.

Learning denied

Boring work: Children doing simple, boring work instead of going to school, studying, and playing will not gain the mental, social, and learning skills important to do well in their community and society.

Missed school: Child laborers usually cannot complete school and may not learn to read, write, or do math. Children who do not get an education have fewer work opportunities as adults.

Noor’s story

Noor lives in Serdang Lama, a small village in Selangor state in the country of Malaysia. She has been working since the age of 7 in a small T-shirt factory.

She folds printed T-shirts to be packaged. She works 6 days a week from 8:30 in the morning until 5:30 in the evening. She does not have time to play with other children.

"I would like to go to school. But we don’t have money. So I’ll continue to work here."

Signs a child’s work is appropriate

The child is the legal age to do legally regulated work or is working in a family business.
The child attends school and has time to study, play, and rest.
The child looks cared for, healthy, and happy.
The work is appropriate to child’s age and physical and mental capabilities.
The girls and boys have equal opportunities to work.
The child is supervised by responsible and caring adults.
The workplace is safe, not dangerous to the health or life of the child.
The work pays a decent wage and provides job skills so the child can get better work in the future.
The child is not working to pay a family debt.

Signs of harmful child labor

The child is school age but is not going to school.
The child’s age and the type of work violate national or international laws.
The child looks tired, dirty, underfed, ill, or unhappy.
The child is forced to work because of family poverty, abandonment, or the illness or death of parents.
The girls have to work because they are denied schooling.
The child is not paid a decent wage.
The child is forced to work for little or no pay.
The child works unsupervised or is supervised by abusive adults.
The child works during school hours, when she should be studying, or very late or early in the day, when she should be resting.
The work is dangerous, unhealthy, or too difficult for the child’s age and physical or mental abilities.
The child faces emotional, verbal, physical, or sexual abuse.

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This page was updated:28 Feb 2021