The workplace I chose to focus on is my cousin who manages his parents vineyard and his own organic farm out in the local wine country. He is exposed to a number of ergonomic issues as well as chemical issues. I met up with my cousin a week ago and asked him how his day was. He said he was managing his parents grapes and just finished spraying pesticides.
Considering the industrial hierarchy of controls, elimination of the use of arsenic would be the most effective method; however, it is not likely considering the damage pest can have on their products. With that said, the most feasible method to with my cousins arsenic exposure would be to either substitute the chemical with a less dangerous chemical or to invest in a PPE, specifically a haz mat suit.
2) What might be the barriers to workers exercising their rights to a healthy and safe workplace?
There are a number of barrier that would deter workers from exercising their right to a healthy and safe work environment. In certain sectors, such as agriculture, workers may be worried about their immigration status. For the most part the biggest and most common barrier is reprisals and/or being fired. Depending on the health issue claim and the repercussions that arise, employers may retaliate which may cost the employee his or her job.
I also agree that one of the barrier that agricultural workers face is worrying about their legal status. Coming from an immigrant family, many times my parents and other family members would not speak up about certain unhealthy and unsafe work conditions due to being scared of loosing their jobs. Many of the chemicals that worked use have labels written only in English. This is a barrier for those workers who are not able to read and understand English. Without having labels in other languages, many workers are unaware of the chemicals they are being exposed to.
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