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1) Consider your workplace or a workplace of one of your family members. Are there chemical, biological, radiological or ergonomic issues? Using the industrial hygiene hierarchy of controls, how might you address the issues? How are they being addressed in reality?

My dad works as an electrical engineer and is overall accident prone. For him, these occupational health and safety regulations are very important and also often ignored. He is likely often exposed to chemical and ergonomic issues, among other things. He is often working in people's homes or industrial areas where there are a lot of particles in the air due to his work as well as cleaning supplies with strong chemical agents. Under the industrial hygiene hierarchy of controls, I do not believe elimination or substitution will occur as he is an independent contractor who takes odd jobs that put himself in those perilous conditions larger companies would turn down. I would try for the engineering controls to isolate others from the area, though that wouldn't protect him. For him, I would mandate a HEPA air filter and face mask. This is an important factor for larger companies to implement, though in reality I don't see this being adhered to by my dad.

2) What might be the barriers to workers exercising their rights to a healthy and safe workplace?

Barriers to workers exercising their rights to a healthy and safe workplace can be quite varied. The first that comes to mind is losing their job should their employer find them to be a liability or a nuisance. Another might be they are not put up for promotion since they are deemed a nuisance as mentioned before. Another barrier, which I think may be most common, is not being aware of the rights they have. For example, the tobacco farmers mention no restroom or water and 12 hour days (and a 9 year old working there!) which is illegal. However when in poverty, who wants to shut down the one source of income? These rights should be posted in more readily available areas.