News - Page 4

Firm fined following outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease

June 2023 A plastics manufacturing company in West Bromwich has been fined after it put workers and the public at risk of being infected with potentially deadly bacteria. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated Riaar Plastics Limited after members of the public became infected with Legionnaire’s disease in September 2020. Five people were infected with the potentially deadly lung infection. One person was taken to intensive care and put on a ventilator after being infected. Riaar Plastics Limited was fined for failing to mana

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NEWSLETTER MARCH 2023
Legionella Control Association North America

The LCA in the UK are aware that a similar organisation has recently been set up in North America with similar goals.  UK LCA have had some initial queries and discussion with this group but are not directly involved in its funding, creation or development.   The LCA of North America did engage the LCA UK to support due to our similar goals. It was the view of the LCA Management Committee that this was above and beyond the remit of the LCA UK. We did ask LCA UK members to express an interest in supporting the LCA North America and this is being progressed as a separate e

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NEWSLETTER MARCH 2023
Getting the Correct People at Audit

For any audit there will be questions to ask and information to gather.  We rely on what we see in documentation, demonstration of systems and on discussion with staff.    When we review what we consider as successful and unsuccessful audits there is often an element of the people present or available on the day.  Where an LCA member is a relatively small company the audit can often be handled by one person who knows how all the processes work and is able to locate procedures and evidence when the auditor requests them.  For larger companies it c

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NEWSLETTER MARCH 2023
Competence for Everybody

One of the key changes in the 2021 rewrite of the LCA service delivery standards was the recognition that there is scope for legionella control work to be impacted by any member of staff: not just the technicians in the field doing the service delivery.  We detailed the identified roles of surveyor, designer, planner, technician, reporter, and auditor in each of the service delivery standards.  So, what does that mean?   Surveyor – this is the role of the person who gets the information necessary to quote a job or contract.  It could be a techni

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Sustained Compliance

December 2022   The LCA exists to raise standards in our industry on an ongoing and sustained basis.  We are aware that there are a small minority, about 5%, of our members that have had repeated non-conformances year on year and, in some cases, past suspension of membership.  After consultation with our enforcement colleagues, we have analysed several metrics including:   Past suspension of LCA membership Delays to LCA audit date  Late audit responses following LCA audit Compl

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