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Wakefield firm fined for Legionnaire's outbreak
A Wakefield-based company has been told to pay £45,000 after two employees contracted Legionnaire's disease.
Butchery processing company Kepak UK was fined 25,000 and ordered to pay 20,000 in costs at Preston Crown Court after pleading guilty to breaching health and safety regulations.
Boguslaw Plociennik and Zbigniew Rauk caught the disease in September and October 2006 respectively.
The pair both worked at the company's Bamber Bridge premises near Preston.
A committee led by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) took water samples from the building and found that significant levels of legionella were present in three locations.
The site has was while the water system was drained and disinfected. It is yet to reopen.
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, is at risk of exposure to legionella bacteria.
"Legionnaires' disease is a potentially fatal illness and, had the correct procedures been in place, the outbreak at Kepak's premises would not have occurred.
"Legionella bacteria can build up in purpose-built water systems and, if conditions are favourable, the bacteria can multiply, increasing the risk."
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