A second Edinburgh company has been issued with improvement notices by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as part of its on-going investigation into the legionnaires outbreak in the city.
The improvement notices served on pharmaceutical company Macfarlan Smith Ltd require thorough cleaning of one of its cooling towers and provision of access for inspection and maintenance of that cooling tower. Both Notices can be appealed by the company within the next 21 days.
Macfarlan Smith is located in Wheatfield Road, the same road as the North British Distillery Company Ltd who were served with an improvement notice last week.
The improvement notices require Macfarlan Smith to take steps to improve its management systems and do not mean that this cooling tower has been identified as the source of the outbreak. HSE said the source of the outbreak may never be conclusively identified, based on experience from previous outbreaks.
The improvement notices have been served because the company has allegedly failed to maintain their control measures for the safe operation of the cooling tower to the required standard. It does not indicate an immediate risk from legionella, as this was being controlled by the emergency dosing of chemicals and the company's subsequent voluntary shutdown of the cooling tower.