Legionnaires warning as HSE fines meat company

London - The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has warned companies to ensure they carry out regular, simple checks to protect employees from Legionnaires¹ disease. The warning follows the prosecution of butchery processing company Kepak UK Ltd after two employees caught the disease at Kepak¹s Carr Place premises in Preston.

The company, which has its headquarters on Flanshaw Lane in Wakefield, was fined £25,000 and ordered to pay £20,000 in costs at Preston Crown Court on 27 July. Kepak pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 by failing to protect its employees from the risk of contracting Legionnaires¹ disease.

The court heard that the first case of Legionnaires¹ disease was diagnosed on 26 Sept 2006 in Boguslaw Plociennik, who was employed as a boner, and a second on 3 October 2006 in Zbigniew Rauk, who was employed as a packer.

Following notification of the two cases, an outbreak committee was formed made up of HSE, South Ribble Borough Council¹s Environmental Health Department, Central Lancashire Primary Care Trust, the Health Protection Unit and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals.

Water samples were taken throughout the building and significant levels of legionella were found to be present at three locations: a pressure washer hose point, an apron wash shower point, and a pressure washer header tank.

The tank was fed by hot and cold water and supplied water to three pressure washer hose points in and around the process area. Employees used the pressure washer system to clean away meat and fat debris in the various processing areas as and when required.

While the investigation was taking place, Kepak closed the Carr Place site and the domestic water system was drained, pumped through, chlorinated and disinfected. Kepak has subsequently not reopened the site, which was one of two the company operated in the Preston area.

A risk assessment had been carried out in May 2001 which set out that simple and periodic checks should be carried out on Kepak's domestic water system, and that the control measures should be monitored and reviewed. But this did not happen

HSE Principal Inspector Dorothy Shaw said: "Kepak failed to carry out simple checks on the hot and cold water system. As a result, many of its employees working at the site were potentially exposed to the legionella bacteria, and two individuals were made seriously ill.

"Any system containing water at temperatures between 20 and 45 degrees Celsius, and which may release an aerosol during operation or maintenance, presents a forseeable risk of exposure to legionella bacteria. Legionnaires¹ disease is a potentially fatal illness and, had the correct procedures been in place, the outbreak at Kepak's premises would not have occurred."

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