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After Legionnaires’ disease was discovered in 2006 in two employees, Boguslaw Plociennik and Zbigniew Rauk, of a meat company, the HSE had taken swift action and established a committee to look into the matter. The committee had representatives from the HSE as well as from the Central Lancashire Primary Care Trust, the Health Protection Unit, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and South Ribble Borough Council’s Environmental Health Department.

Both the persons found to be infected were employees of Kepak UK Ltd, Lancashire. As soon as the investigations had started, the company decided to close its unit in Carr Place which was one of the two Preston units of the company. The unit was thoroughly disinfected before closing it down. Despite the investigation having ended now, the unit has not been reopened.

The investigation showed that the company had failed to protect its employees due to its negligence. The water samples taken from its units showed that legionella, which is responsible for the disease was present in high amounts which had led to the disease. It was found in significant levels in the pressure washer header tank, apron wash shower point and pressure washer hose point. The tank and the pressure washer system were being used for cleaning the meat. Companies need to be sure that they are giving the correct instructions to employees with regard to health and hygiene issues, and can make themselves fully aware of the most up-to-date requirements by visiting Workplace Law and looking at their highly regarded NEBOSH Health and Safety courses.

The HSE prosecuted the company before the Preston Crown court. The company accepted that it had infringed Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 as it failed to prevent the outbreak of the disease in its premises. It agreed to pay the fine of £25,000 as decreed by the court. The company was also asked to pay the costs of litigation, amounting to £20,000.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 4:58 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.