GAO report raises concern over the health and safety of child farmworkers in the U.S., " often exposed to dangerous pesticides, heavy machinery, and extreme heat, and they are being killed as a result."

In the wake of a new child labor report by the Government Accountability Office, the Child Labor Coalition joins Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard,-Calif., and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in voicing concern for the health and safety of 2.5 million U.S. children who work for wages, particularly those who toil in sectors like agriculture with elevated injury and fatality rates. "The scourge of child labor still haunts America," said Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League and a co-chair of the CLC. The new report "Working Children: Federal Injury Data and Compliance Strategies Could Be Strengthened" (November 2018) updates a 2002 GAO report on child labor in the United States. The GAO found that while fewer than 5.5 percent of working children in the United States toiled on farms, the agricultural sector accounted for more than 50 percent of child labor fatalities. In the years 2003 to 2016, 237 children died in farm-related work accidents, representing four times the number of deaths of any other sector (construction and mining had 59 over the 14-year period). "The GAO report's findings are damning," said Roybal-Allard and Rep. DeLauro in a joint statement. "This report confirms that child labor is contributing to a devastating amount of fatalities in the United States — disproportionately so in the agricultural sector. In that industry, kids are often exposed to dangerous pesticides, heavy machinery, and extreme heat, and they are being killed as a result. That is unacceptable."...MORE

Interesting that Roybal-Allard is so interested in farm kids. Her district, which includes East LA and South LA, over a similar period of time experienced 179 deaths caused by street racing. 10 percent of teenagers in her district don't attend school or work, and there are 5,685 children in her district with special healthcare needs. Perhaps she should address those problems before meddling with farm kids.

UPDATE 

Just as I suspected. Both Delauro and Roybal-Allard have a 97 percent rating by the AFL-CIO. The unions don't like teenagers working and taking up jobs in the workforce.