does not, however, apply evenly; for example, in many countries specific industries, or small factories, or family undertakings are excluded from legislation. On the other hand, hazardous work is usually prohibited to children below 16 or 18 years. Such prohibitions often cover such work as manufacture of fireworks, glass blowing, the use of toxic materials in dye houses, work involving exposure to extremes of heat and cold in manufacture of confectionery, work in foundries and in all sorts of factories; work near furnaces and unguarded machinery; underground work in mines and quarries, lifting heavy weights, industrial painting, work involving explosives, toxic materials, or substantial quantities of potentially harmful dust, smoke or gas; the cleaning or greasing of machinery in motion, the use of power saws, drills, pile drivers, mangles, crushers or other similar tools or machines, work on scaffoldings, work in
or near blast furnaces, high slaughter houses, work with tension electrical equipment, various kinds of generators, high-pressure equipment, or inadequately guarded machinery.
Often
National laws regulating non-industrial employment (for example in commerce, shops, banks, hospitals, hotels and restaurants) tend to be more permissive than those covering industrial work; the minimum age for this work is often lower than 14, and exceptions for light work are much commoner. the only limiting factor is a requirement for compulsory schooling. However, in few countries where legislation exists is even light work permitted below 12 years, and many countries make special provision to protect children against hazardous, unhealthy and morally dangerous work.
The sector in which minimum age laws have made least headway is agriculture. In many, if not most countries, the employment of children in agriculture is hardly regulated at all, and exclusions and exceptions to child labour laws
Even in western are particularly common in agriculture.
industrial countries such as the USA, Canada and several European countries, the main restraint on the use of children in agriculture are the laws on compulsory schooling.