By the year 2010, 17.8 million youths aged 16-19 will work, up from 16 million in 2000, according to government forecasts. Young workers suffer a disproportionate share of injuries and fatalities, especially in the first year on the job. In 2006, 30 youths under 18 died from work-related injuries.
A mutation may or may not affect the amino acid sequence. A mutation may or may not affect the phenotype. Some specific mutations in a gene may have more adverse affects than other mutations in the same gene. A mutation is not necessarily bad. It may even be good. A mutation may enhance or positively change the function of the protein produced by the gene.
But not all DNA changes are harmful. Some mutations have no effect, and others produce new versions of proteins that may give a survival advantage to the organisms that have them. Over time, mutations supply the raw material from which new life forms evolve (see Chapter 3, Life's Genetic Tree).