The Belgian periodical "Prevent Focus", devoted to occupational safety and health matters, presented in March 2009 a paper about several surveys on the overexposure of young workers to workplace hazards in Europe.

Young workers are more vulnerable than older ones. Statistically, young workers aged 15-19 have two to three times greater probability of having an accident than other workers. Although the probability is reduced, this is still true for workers in the 20-29 year age group.

One of the explanations of this tendency is that young people have less experience and they are often exposed to dangerous tasks. Seniority has indeed an undeniable influence on the proportionality of accidents because more than 30 percent of the victims have less than a year professional experience and almost 60 percent have less than 5 years experience. However, young people usually have less serious injuries and as they recover more easily, they can go back to work sooner.

Those observations show that it is more than necessary to implement structures, information and training for new workers and not to ignore any more the consequences of risk overexposure for young people.

  This article is available (in French) on the Prevent Focus website.

  See also our News item: Young workers – A light into the future.

  Seven golden rules for young workers, implemented by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, Ontario, Canada.