Instead, these characteristics must be taken into account so that work environments can be structured to minimize the risks to which young people are exposed.

Inexperience is not unique to children and adolescents, but it is an inescapable characteristic of young workers. Studies of occupational injuries provide no clear-cut answers about the relative influences of inexperience and an individual worker's personal characteristics (such as age) on the occurrence of hazardous incidents, but a number of studies have found a relationship between injury rates and adult workers' ages. Band and Pismire (1984) reviewed coal-mining injuries and found that younger adult workers had much higher rates of disabling injuries than did older workers. Jensen and Sinkule (1988) report that the risk of amputation while operating a