In her three years as a lifeguard at the Avon (N.J.) Swimming Pool, Sara Bramhall has learned enough to know the signs of heat stroke. She knows she needs to drink water, find shade and wear sunscreen.

She also has had time to observe what some teenagers go through to make a good impression on the job.

"Sometimes I think younger workers try to work twice as hard, do twice as much, twice as fast, so their supervisors don't think their age is interfering with their ability," said Bramhall, 18, of Avon.

It's a mindset that government officials fear can lead to danger. State and federal agencies are trying to educate teenagers — and their employers — about young workers' rights in the workplace, knowing that a bad summer job experience can have devastating consequences.

They say teenagers are particularly susceptible to having their rights infringed on, mainly because they are new to the workplace, are eager to impress and reluctant to make waves.

"It sets your frame of mind for the rest of your work life if you don't know what to do," said Corrado Gigante, director of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Newark, N.J. The agency protects workers against discrimination. "You shouldn't be subjected to violations of the law."

In sounding an alarm, government officials said the stage is set for danger. Teenagers often are temporary or part-time workers, so employers might not take the time to train them. They often have supervisors who aren't much older than themselves. And they often work physical jobs that can lead to injuries.

Most significant? "Their desire to succeed or please," said Frank Meilinger, a spokesman for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. "They're a little bit more willing to take risks or be more tentative to voice concerns if they're unsure of something or are in a hazardous situation."

The laws for workers typically cover three areas — wage and hour, safety, and discrimination — and many of them are clear-cut. New Jersey law, for example, prohibits 16- and 17-year-olds from working more than 40 hours a week or six consecutive days.

Other laws are open to interpretation. Teenagers who might get away with teasing or harassing students at their high school could land themselves and their employers in trouble for similar behavior in the workplace, Gigante said.

Managers who don't address problems quickly can find them cascading out of control. OSHA reports that as many as 250,000 workers younger than 18 sustain work-related injuries and illnesses a year. And from 1992 to 2002, an average of 64 teenage workers a year died from work-related injuries.

Moreover, companies that don't follow labor laws face heavy fines. Foodarama Supermarkets Inc., for example, was fined by the U.S. Labor Department more than $300,000 last summer for violations at 11 ShopRite supermarkets in Monmouth and Ocean counties in New Jersey.

The department said the supermarket chain allowed dozens of underage workers to operate dangerous equipment or work more hours than the law permits.

"More and more, we're seeing charges from younger people," Gigante said. "These companies need to understand these individuals are covered by the laws, and they need to oversee the work site as they would whether (the workers) are 18 or 38."