Abstract

Aim: Child labour which is an important social problem especially in developing countries affects physical and psycosocial development of children. It is a serious obstacle for their education. According to International Labour of Organization (ILO) records 250 millions of children are working worldwide. Every one often working children has an unfavourable workplace conditions in our country. The aim of this study was to asses the socioculturel characteristics and health status of the working children in automotive industry; to determine workplace conditions, ergonomic risk factors; to investigate the exposed toxic substances. Methods: This prospective study, a project carried on by ILO/International Programme on the Elimination of Childlabour (IPEC) and Ministry of Labour and Social Security enrolled 378 of the children working in automotive sector in 1st- 6th industrial sites in Izmir and younger than 18 years of age. Physical examination of all children was done by two pediatricians. The complete blood count, biochemical analysis, plasma hegzane, benzene, toluene and lead levels were measured. PA chest radiographs were interpreted. The demographic and sociocultural characteristics of working children, educational level and monthly income of their family, their workplace conditions, ergonomic risk factors were investigated with a guestionnaire. The statistical analysis was done with chi-square and Pearson correlation analysis and p<0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. Results: AH of the working children were male. Their mean chronological age and mean age at start of work were 16.8 ± 1.2 and 13.6 ± 2.2 years respectively. Twenty percentage of the mothers of children, 6.1% of their fathers and 0.5 % of the occupational children vuere illiterate. 86.5% of the vuorkplaces vuere poorly airated. Standing still for long periods and carrying heavy matter were the most common ergonomic risk factors. The most common physical findings were poor oral hygiene and decayed teeth (38.1%), growth retardation (11.1%) and pallor (4.4%). Hyperlipidemia (9.5%) and anemia (5.6%) were the most common abnormal laboratory findings. 44.15% of children's blood lead levels was higher than 10 pıg/dl. There was no statistically significant correlation between plasma lead level and anemia. Conclusion: Child labour continues to pose a challenging national problem in our country. It affects children's physical and psychological health as well as education. Low education, poverty and insufficiency of the national work-lavus are the major factors for the child labour and improvement of the work-lavus should be done by the governments.