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HP Bulmers in prosecution for legionella outbreak
Thursday 3 July 2008
Bulmers Cider and NALCO Fined for health and safety breaches.
Cider-maker HP Bulmer and its water treatment contractor were each fined
£300,000 today for health and safety breaches which led to a fatal outbreak
of Legionnaires' disease.
Judge Alistair McCreath also ordered the Hereford-based drinks firm and
Nalco Limited to pay more than £50,000 each in prosecution costs after
hearing two people died and more than 20 other members of the public fell
ill in the city in 2003.
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From the information received by the public domain, it is yet again evident that the crucial areas that are obviously neglected over and over again are the Risk Assessment and its quality, the level of auditing on current control measures and execution of works and above all good quality training.
If you know what you're doing and the consequences of not carrying out the basic measures, it is reasonable to say that these failures would be most unlikely.
I cannot emphasis enough the need for training of legionella control at all levels from duty holders and responsible persons to the person who flushes an outlet. Training applicable to the actions carried out is critical and must be assessed to ensure good retention of knowledge from the training and not a certificate stating “course attendance”.
Quality of training is as important as having the training in the first place. Perhaps we should look for an association to be developed with unified assessment papers on various subjects within legionella control so we can remove the rogue element of useless, cheap and non productive training that is evident around the UK and beyond.
If you have a comment on this feel free to contact me.