The deputy leader of Northern Ireland's Health and Safety Executive Bryan Monson on his message at the Balmoral Show
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00:00Sir, can you introduce yourself, tell us why you're here today?
00:03So, my name's Brian Lonesome from Health and Safety Executive
00:05and we're here today to try and raise awareness of some areas of health for farmers
00:11that we're talking to today at Pearl Moral.
00:16What are you particularly focused on?
00:18One of the key areas today is starting to raise awareness of farmers' lung health.
00:23Quite often people think that farmers live in a lovely environment in the outdoors
00:27but actually they're exposed to a lot of dusts and chemicals which can damage their lungs.
00:33A lot of what, sorry?
00:34Dusts and chemicals.
00:36So, they're involved in dusts and chemicals which can damage their lungs
00:41and over a period of time can result in some pretty serious conditions.
00:45So, we're using lots of visuals here today to try and raise awareness
00:49of maybe, for example, some of the dusts they come about
00:52and some of the things that they can do to reduce that and keep themselves healthy.
00:57And what's been the reaction you've been getting from folks you meet?
01:01This has been really, really positive today.
01:03A lot of people who are saying that they didn't realise that there were problems
01:08and also they didn't realise that a lot of the solutions are relatively simple and straightforward.
01:14So, it's been very, very valuable getting that message out.
01:16And what kind of solutions have you in mind?
01:20So, a lot of the things we can do are quite simple.
01:23So, for example, here's an example of dust from a tractor floor
01:27and if people simply can keep their tractors clean and dust it out, cleaned out
01:33then they'll reduce the dust flow, working upwind, wetting down surfaces before they're brushed
01:40and then using the right sort of masks
01:42and we've been providing advice on what sort of masks they can use.
01:45So, thank you.