Over 100 million children in dangerous jobs - U.N.

(June 13, 2011) Over 115 million of the world's children and young teenagers, or more than 7 percent of the total, are engaged in dangerous and life-threatening jobs, according to a report by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The United Nations agency, which sets standards for employment around the globe, said the industries involved ranged from mining and metalworking through farming and shoe-making to flower-growing and the banana industry. The report was issued on the occasion of the UN sponsored World Day against Child Labour on Sunday. The ILO, which defines children as anyone up to the age of 18, said the total number of young people in hazardous jobs was well over half of those known to be working - the overwhelming majority in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Extreme poverty drives practically all of them to take up both physically and psychologically dangerous jobs, sometimes where the effects from toxic substances they had to work with only emerge in later life. The report said the largest numbers were in Asia, where over 48 million children and young people - or some 5.6 per cent of the total in the region - were earning their living in jobs fraught with danger. In sub-Saharan Africa, the totals were nearly 39 million, but this accounted for more than 15 per cent of the overall population in the age category. In Latin America the total was 9.5 million, or 6.7 per cent.