Date: 2007-02-06
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Original Article: http://media-newswire.com/release_1042891.html
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The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned companies to ensure that water chiller systems are adequately treated to prevent outbreaks of legionella - which affects more than 250 people nationally every year. The warning comes after LINPAC Materials Handling UK Ltd was fined £2,500 and costs of £13,000 at Aldridge and Walsall Magistrates' Court on Monday 5 February after pleading guilty to a breach of Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, for failing to adequately control the risks from legionella at their Walsall site between 5 January and 3 March 2004.
(Media-Newswire.com) - The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned companies to ensure that water chiller systems are adequately treated to prevent outbreaks of legionella - which affects more than 250 people nationally every year.
The warning comes after LINPAC Materials Handling UK Ltd was fined £2,500 and costs of £13,000 at Aldridge and Walsall Magistrates' Court on Monday 5 February after pleading guilty to a breach of Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, for failing to adequately control the risks from legionella at their Walsall site between 5 January and 3 March 2004.
Speaking after the case, HSE investigating inspector Angela Gallagher said:
"Companies need to be aware that any system containing water at a temperature likely to exceed 20oC and which may release an aerosol during operation or maintenance presents a foreseeable risk of exposure to legionella bacteria. Linpac had neglected to take action to control that risk in their chiller system. They had also failed to prevent unsafe working practices which created exposure to potentially infected aerosols."
During a visit to the Linpac site at Newfield Close, Green Lane, Walsall, HSE inspectors found evidence of poor maintenance of the chiller unit at the factory. There was also a lack of biocide treatment - used to inhibit the growth of legionella - within the unit.
Notes to editors:
1. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees."
2. Legionnaires' disease is a type of pneumonia. As well as affecting the lungs it can also have serious effects on other organs of the body. The disease can only be caught by inhaling airborne water droplets or particles which contain viable legionella bacteria. The droplets must be small enough to pass deep into the lungs and be deposited in the alveoli. Person to person transmission of the disease has never been recorded.
The first identified outbreak of legionnaires' disease occurred among people who had attended a Pennsylvania State Convention of the American Legion in 1976.
PUBLIC ENQUIRIES: Call HSE's InfoLine, Tel: 08701 545500, or write to: HSE InfoLine, Caerphilly Business Park, Caerphilly CF83 3GG.
ISSUED ON BEHALF OF THE HSE BY GOVERNMENT NEWS NETWORK.
Client ref HSE WM 4215/07P
GNN ref 143639P