UK company fined for condition of water chiller.

7 February 2007 – Linpac Materials Handling UK has been fined £2,500, and ordered to pay half the costs (£13,000), after a water chiller at its Midland plant was found to be a Legionnaires’ disease risk.

The company admitted breaches of the Health and Safety regulations at its Walsall site, near Birmingham, during a hearing before Walsall magistrates.

The court heard that HSE inspectors had gone into the plant after two workers contracted the disease in 2004.

Tests showed that the workers had not become infected at the plant. But during the course of the investigation HSE inspectors found the water chiller was at risk of carrying the disease.

The HSE also said that Linpac had failed to heed previous warnings about the dangers of the disease at the plant.

In mitigation, the company said they had cooperated fully with the HSE but had not been warned that there could be specific problems with the chiller.

A spokesperson for Linpac told PRW.com: “At the court hearing the HSE made it very clear to the magistrates that there was no evidence that LINPAC [Materials Handling UK] had made anybody ill and that the offence was at the lowest end of the scale. The fine and the sharing of the prosecution cost between LINPAC and the HSE reflected this situation.”

In an HSE statement, 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.”

7/2/07 – PRW.Com