Area's towers breed deadly bug

Black Country people could be at increased risk from Legionnaires' Disease because of the number of cooling towers from the area's industrial heritage, it has been revealed today.

The problem has been highlighted by a consultant who is investigating an outbreak of the disease which has killed a 50-year-old woman from the Dudley area.

In addition, one other person in still being treated in hospital for the disease and three others are recovering at home.

Dr Dan Killalea, a consultant in the Black Country with the Health Protection Agency (HPA), said the region is dotted with water towers which cool down the area's factories and furnaces.

However, they harbour the bacteria that can cause the potentially deadly form of pneumonia.

Dr Killalea said there may be as many as 300 of these towers across the area. He added that at least 10 sites had been visited, assessed and either been told to disinfect their systems or taken out of operation because of the latest outbreak.

The five new cases are in addition to 11 that had been recorded in the region up until the end of June - the same number recorded as in the whole of 2006.

In February, Linpac Materials Handling UK Ltd was fined more than £15,000 for putting workers at risk of the disease through a water chiller system, while in April 2004 Paul Worral, an engineer at Eaton Limited, in Quarry Bank, died after contracting the disease.

The increase in the number of cases in the Black Country has highlighted a worrying trend nationally with more cases confirmed in the whole of last year than at any time since records began in 1980.

Legionnaires' Disease is caused by a germ called Legionella pneumophila which is widely found in the environment, such as in ponds, hot and cold water systems and water in air conditioning cooling systems.

Although the disease, cannot spread from one person to another it can be transmitted up to a kilometre in the air through an infected water source.

By Jon Wood