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Does Enforcement Contribute to a Reduction in the Number of Cases
of Legionnaires’ Disease
The UK has well known, publicised guidance on how to reduce the risk
associated with the potential presence of
Legionella
in water systems and this
guidance has existed, in one form or another, since 1987. Many companies
and consultants sell training courses to help water systemusers increase their
awareness and level of understanding of what is required from the guidance.
Professional organisations such as the Water Management Society have well
advertisedseminars and training lectures throughout theyear. HSE inspectors
visit sites throughout the year to check proactively on levels of compliance to
the guidance and to carry out inspections of systems, risk assessments and
the monitoring and recording processes. The HSE also visits sites reactively
in the event of an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.
A number of attempted prosecutions are brought by the HSE every year.
Some of these prosecution attempts are successful with the guilty companies
having to pay ever increasing levels of fines. There has been one attempt at
prosecuting a person for manslaughter, although the person involved was
found by the court to be not guilty. In some cases, individuals such as senior
managers, and directors of organisations, as well as companies, have been
fined.
It is therefore a fair question to ask, if the guidance, legislation and use of
the court and legal systems, has led to a reduction in the levels of Legionnaires’
disease that are being encountered in the UK. This is not an easy question to
answer. While there is an awareness of the need for risk reduction procedures
to be followed, there is no real measure of the level of adherence to these
risk reduction processes. Additionally, hospitals and the health care services
may be looking more closely for, and may have become better at, identifying
