Keeping teens safe on the job.

• Position: Your Life - Brief article

When teenagers go off to work--sometimes for the first time in their lives--parents want to know they will be safe. The American Industrial Hygiene Association, Fairfax, Va., recommends that teens and their families be aware of common hazards, how to create a safer work environment, and labor laws relating to youngsters.

Consider these statistics from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health:

* On average, 45% of American teens are employed each year--more than any other developed country.

* Over 3,000,000 U.S. teens enter the workforce every summer and thousands of these are admitted to emergency rooms due to work-related injuries.

* Nearly 200,000 adolescents suffer injuries on the job and approximately 70 die from these injuries each year.

* Teens have the highest rate of nonfatal work-related injuries, even though they encounter the same potential on-the-job hazards as adults.

* The reasons for teen work-related accidents include...