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However, 188 improvement notices were issued to around 16% of the sites
visited indicatingthatthereweresignificantcauses forconcernabouthowthe
GuidanceandACOPwasbeing implementedand followed. Themajorityof
these improvementnoticeswere issuedasaresultofthesitesshowinga lackof
effective implementationof controlmeasures. Improvement notices identify
issues of serious concern, and give the cooling tower operator a designated
periodof time to rectify the situation.
Additionally, 5 prohibition notices were served to sites.Three of these
were for a lackof safe access to the cooling plant and 2were for inadequate
control. A prohibition notice is a more serious level of enforcement and
wouldusually lead to a cooling tower being closeddownuntil the required
actionsor improvementswerecompleted.
Aswell as theproactive site visits detailed above, theHSEhave engaged
ina rangeofotheractivities toengagewithbusinessand tradeorganisations.
Meetings were held with several stakeholders prior to the commencement
of the sitevisitprogramme including the
Legionella
ControlAssociation, the
ChemicalsandDownstreamOil IndustriesForumandEnergyUK. TheHSE
confirmed that theywouldcontinue toengagewith stakeholders.
In addition to the above, theHSE released a SafetyNotice in July 2012,
which was targeted at operators of evaporative cooling plant, reminding
themof theirduties tomanage risks effectively, andproviding simple advice
on how this can be achieved.This was followed in September 2012, by the
issue of a second safety notice targeted at operators of other
Legionella
risk
systems, suchashot andcoldwater services inbuildings, and spapools.
