FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Poor Legionella bacteria control puts councils and their employee’s at risk of fines or imprisonment

13th June 2007

Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

Legionella, the cause of Legionnaires disease, is a naturally occurring bacteria that can be deadly to humans, especially those that are elderly or in poor health. It is usually passed to people through water vapour or spray. The most common sources of legionella bacteria are found in air conditioning cooling towers, on shower heads, and around swimming pools. Surprisingly, the number of reported cased of legionella infections in the UK actually went up by over 30% from 2005 to 2006 according to the UK Health Protection Agency.

The issue of legionella control is especially important to county and borough councils in the UK because of a landmark case in 2006. The case started in 2002 when seven people died and 180 people fell ill in a legionella outbreak at a Barrow Borough Council owned building. A court hearing found that the outbreak was caused by a failure to test and add appropriate chemicals to the water system at the building. This resulted in a build up of legionella bacteria in the air conditioning units that released legionella contaminated vapour on the public. The Barrow Borough Council pleaded guilty to a breach of health and safety and was fined £125,000. The employee responsible for the purchasing of maintenance services for the air conditioners was also fined £15,000 for breaching health and safety. The litigation however may not stop there as several of the victims of the outbreak have still not fully recovered.

Further poor local control was shown by the admission by the Portsmouth City Council that they had contracted the testing for legionella bacteria in the council offices to a man who claimed to have proper credentials, but was later found be without any of the required skills or knowledge. The contractor was later given a two year jail term for his fraud.

However, there is now help for council purchasing officers from Buyers Guide and it’s website, www.buyersguide.co.uk, where 65 legionella control companies have put their specific skills and offerings for government procurement officers to review, either by the legionella control category, by the region of the UK, by company name or by a keyword search.

What makes www.buyersguide.co.uk unique and different from the general internet or print directories is that the details of these 65 legionella control companies can be updated at any time with breaking news of relevant successes like new contract wins, new technologies, or patents awarded. Additionally, to tailor each message to public sector buyers, Buyers Guide offers each company a “profile” on the www.buyersguide.co.uk website. This profile is written to answer the pre-qualification questions from public sector buyers. This usually includes information like; previous work with other government bodies, case studies of past successes, years in business, industry qualifications or certifications like ISO 9002, testimonials from clients, government awards like investors in people, confirmation of equal opportunity employer status and specific contact details.

Government purchasing officers are incredibly busy and need to find the right service vendors quickly. The Buyers Guide profiling system allows them to do just that. With 2 clicks of the mouse, they can easily find qualified vendors in their area.

There are over 5,000 company listings in 1,200 categories on the www.buyersguide.co.uk website. The companies listed range from family businesses to multinationals, but all have the goal of working on public sector contracts. These include working on ministry of defence building and facilities, NHS facilities, schools, council building, landfills, brown field site regeneration, utility buildings and housing estates.

Contact:

Buyers Guide
0191 260 5388
0191 221 2287
info@buyersguide.co.uk
www.buyersguide.co.uk

Company History

Buyers Guide, based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, was established in 1996 and is the leading online directory of UK companies that are targeting the £600 billion in public spending each year. To date, there are over 5,000 company listings in 1,200 categories on the www.buyersguide.co.uk website.