These farm-worker children weed cotton fields, pick lettuce and cantaloupe and climb rickety ladders in cherry and apple orchards. They often work 12 or more hours a day, sometimes beginning at 3 or 4 in the morning. They risk serious illness, including cancer and brain damage, from exposure to pesticides, and suffer high rates of injury from working with sharp tools and heavy machinery. Many of them drop out of school, too exhausted to study. Nearly half of them never graduate from high school.
Agriculture is the most dangerous occupation open to minors in the United States.
The long-term effects of pesticide exposure are not yet completely known, but have been linked to cancer, brain tumors, brain damage and birth defects. Child farm workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch for a recent study described working in fields still wet with poison and being exposed to pesticide drift from spraying in nearby fields. Despite the hazards of agricultural work, current U.S. labor law allows children working in agriculture to work at younger ages and for longer hours than minors in other jobs. Children as young as 12 can legally work unlimited hours in agriculture. In contrast, kids cannot work in the fast-food industry before age 14 and are limited to no more than three hours of work on a school day until age 16.