Two West Midlands firms have been fined £120,000 after staff and the public were put at risk of exposure to legionella bacterium.
The HSE started an inquiry after a worker at Eaton Ltd in Brierley Hill died from Legionnaire’s disease in 2006. The Court heard there was no link proved between the death and action by the firm but it had breached health and safety laws.
Water treatment services provider, Aegis, was also at fault, the HSE said. Aegis, based at Amington Industrial Estates in Tamworth, Staffordshire, was contracted by vehicle parts manufacturer Eaton Ltd to provide treatment services.
The Legal Position
There are too many pieces of legislation that may impact on controlling Legionella to go into detail. The key pieces are:
- The Health and Safety at Work Etc. Act 1974 (duty owed to employees and others)
- The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (need to make risk assessments)
- The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH – includes micro-organisms)
- The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR – Legionnaire’s disease is a notifiable disease under the regs.)
- Notification of Cooling Towers and Evaporative Condensers Regulations 1992 (duty to notify local authority of details of certain devices)
- The Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 and the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996 (duty to consult with employees)
In Summary Employers need to:
- identify and assess sources of risk;
- prepare a scheme (or course of action) for preventing or controlling the risk;
- implement and manage the scheme – appointing a person to be managerially responsible, sometimes referred to as the ‘responsible person’;
- keep records and check that what has been done is effective; and
- if appropriate, notify the local authority that they have a cooling tower(s) on site
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