There are more than 900 people living in the Forster Tuncurry area employed in industries which could be detrimental to lung health.
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However, a specialist mobile lung screening service - also known as the lung bus - will visit Forster next month.
The bus provides specialised lung health assessments to current and retired workers who are considered as risk of developing a workplace dust disease such as mesothelioma or silicosis.
"Our lung bus may look like any other semi-trailer, but on board is a medical screening team that includes a general practitioner who can provide a full lung screen health assessment, a radiographer that performs the chest x-rays and a certified respiratory scientist who performs the lung function tests," The Insurance and Care NSW (icare) Mobile Lung Screen specialist care interim general manager, Christine Callaghan said.
"The full examination is just 25 minutes," she said.
"We recognise that it's difficult for people in regional or rural areas to access specialist health services - they often have to travel long distances or experience lengthy wait times for an appointment.
"By bringing our lung bus to Forster, we can ensure retired workers and current at-risk workers can access this critical health monitoring service, while also saving them valuable time and minimising disruption to their busy day."
The mobile lung screen is available, free of charge, to workers who may have been exposed to workplace dust.
This includes retired workers with possible exposure to hazardous dusts during their working life, and also current workers who were previously employed in an at-risk industry but have now moved into a different occupation.
"Work activities like abrasive blasting, brick cutting, excavation and demolition work, road construction and stonemasonry are some common avenues for hazardous dust exposure.
"If during you're working life in NSW, you were regularly carrying out work of this type, we really encourage you to contact icare Dust Diseases Care to arrange a free lung health assessment,."
The Mobile Lung Screen is also available to assist high-risk employers meet their obligations under the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2017 which requires NSW employers to provide health monitoring for employees exposed to hazardous dusts.
"We want to make it easier for NSW employers to meet this obligation, so we bring the service to their door step, and offer it at a subsidised rate of just $100 plus GST per person."
The Mobile Lung Screen will be available for screenings on Thursday, May 30 and Friday, May 31.
Contact icare Dust Diseases Care on 13 94 44 or visit the icare website.