Inspection cutbacks could lead to deadly legionnaire's outbreaks - Guardian.co.uk
Proactive checks on potential legionella breeding grounds have halved in three years, says UK health and safety watchdog
Inspections of sites identified as potential breeding grounds for legionnaires' disease have almost halved over the last three years.
The sharp decline has resulted in warnings that cutbacks are having a damaging effect on public health and comes as officials continue to investigate several outbreaks of the disease, including one last month in Stoke-on-Trent in which two people died.
There has been a 44% fall in the number of inspections into legionella the bacterium that causes the disease carried out by the Health and Safety Executive since 2009. The total level of proactive inspections fell from 833 in 2009 to 464 in 2011.
Legionella pneumophila is associated with poorly maintained air conditioning cooling towers and potable water systems.
Proactive inspections are carried out at sites that are considered to be at high risk of causing an outbreak of the disease, which is spread through infected water sources, particularly industrial cooling towers and air-conditioning systems. According to the HSE, 90% of outbreaks in the past 10 years were caused by businesses failing to identify risks and implement effective control measures.
There are around 5,800 cooling sites in the UK, of which 2,900 undergo inspections by the HSE. The number of legionella inspections at cooling towers carried out by the HSE fell from 237 in 2010 to 134 in 2011, according to the figures released to Environmental Health News .
Graham Jukes, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, warned of a "ticking time bomb". He said: "My concern is that, over time, we will see increases in the number of accidental deaths or outbreaks of disease that could be prevented from proactive actions."
In June more than 100 people in Edinburgh contracted legionnaires' disease in an outbreak believed to have stemmed from a cooling tower. Three people died. A leading bacteriologist, Professor Hugh Pennington, has called for a public inquiry into the outbreak and a "root-and-branch" review of regulatory policy.
He described the fall in inspections as "highly unsatisfactory". He added: "The great majority of cooling towers can only be having inspections once every 10 years, some probably less."
The number of deaths from legionnaires' disease has halved over the past three years but Pennington said this had been achieved through improvements in intensive care.
A spokeswoman for the HSE said it was the responsibility of operators of cooling sites to ensure they did not pose a risk to public health and that inspections were only one of a number of measures deployed in combating disease. She said the figures related only to legionella-focused inspections and did not include general inspections that might also reveal the bacteria.
