Balmoral 2025: Farmers told - beware of dust - video Dailymotion

The deputy leader of Northern Ireland's Health and Safety Executive Bryan Monson on his message at the Balmoral Show

Transcript

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.