Policy reversal for HSE

In a major policy reversal, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has decided to bring back pro-active inspections of cooling towers following last year’s fatal legionella outbreaks.

A 2012 investigation by Environmental Health News found that there had been a massive drop in the number of such inspections, with 40% less inspections by local authorities and 44% less by the HSE.

This withdrawal of pro-active inspections of cooling towers has been linked by some with serious outbreaks of legionella. In 2012 there were outbreaks in Edinburgh, where 100 people were injured and three died, and in Stoke-on-Trent where two people died.

At the time in July 2012, the HSE resisted re-instituting pro-active inspections. Instead it responded to these outbreaks by issuing a safety notice, warning of the risks from cooling towers and evaporative condensers.

Finally, however, the HSE has agreed that organisations with cooling towers will be checked, although checking all 5,000 sites in the UK with cooling towers will take 18 months.

The government’s 2011 strategy document, Good health and safety, good for everyone, outlined plans to reduce HSE inspections by a third, prompting concern over an expected fall in pro-active inspections in workplaces.

And while the decision to use pro-active inspections of cooling towers represents a policy turnaround, it is limited to this one issue — and only came after the deaths of five people.