The SIMPOC Philippine Survey of Children 2001: A Data Source for Analyzing Occupational Injuries to Children

Abstract

Child labor is a global issue that exists in both industrialized and developing countries. With the unanimous adoption of International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 182 in 1999 calling for the immediate elimination of the worst forms of child labor, ratifying member countries have committed themselves to identifying hazardous work for children in the context of their respective legislative frameworks. Part of tackling the problem of child labor is knowing what types of occupational activities children are engaged in, what types of work environments they are under, and what risks of injuries and illnesses they are exposed to while working. Using the Philippines as a country example, this study introduces a promising data source on children's work and presents a methodology for examining hazardous work to children through the examination of injury rates. Data for this study rely primarily on a nationally representative dataset from the Survey of Children 2001 carried out by the Philippine National Statistics Office, covering the months of October 2001 to September 2002.

Measuring hazardous work and identifying risk factors for non‐fatal injuries among children working in Philippine agriculture

“…Methods for defining injuries, estimating person-hours to reflect on-thejob exposure time, and calculating incidence rates and relative risk measures have been previously described [Castro et al, 2005]. The population of all working children and the number of occupational injuries were characterized by industry.…”

“…Relative risk of injury was estimated for children working in agriculture compared to children working in other industries. Methods for defining injuries, estimating person-hours to reflect on-thejob exposure time, and calculating incidence rates and relative risk measures have been previously described [Castro et al, 2005].…”

“…b Note: Person-hours are estimated using the primary working time estimates as outlined in a previous study [Castro et al, 2005]. Adult supervision and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE, including protective clothing, shoes, and gloves) were hypothesized to be protective factors.…”

“…Data for this study were obtained from the Philippine Survey of Children 2001 (SOC 2001). Unlike other national child labor surveys, the SOC 2001 is unique in collecting detailed industry and occupation classification codes and occupational safety and health data for children, including types of injuries [Castro et al, 2005;Dorman, 2008]. The SOC 2001 was a topical module attached to the quarterly Labor Force Survey (LFS) conducted from October 2001 to September 2002.…”

“…However, no protective associations were found for either variable. [Castro et al, 2005]. c Note: The exposed group for relative risk estimates is children working in the specified industry and the non-exposed group is children working in all other industry divisions.…”