The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) today served two Improvement Notices at a second Edinburgh company as part of its ongoing Legionella investigation.

The Improvement Notices served on Macfarlan Smith Ltd, Wheatfield Road, Gorgie, Edinburgh 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.

Last week (Friday 8 June), HSE served an Improvement Notice on North British Distillery Company Ltd for a failure to devise and implement a sustained and effective biocide control programme in one cooling tower at its site on Wheatfield Road, Edinburgh.


The enforcement action against Macfarlan Smith comes as part of an ongoing investigation into a Legionnaires' disease outbreak in South West Edinburgh. Visits to other companies are ongoing.

The Improvement Notices 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 its control measures for the safe operation of the cooling tower to the required standard.

The move does not indicate an immediate risk from legionella, as this was being controlled by the emergency dosing of chemicals and the shutdown of the cooling tower.

HSE can issue an Improvement Notice where there has been a contravention of health and safety law. The deadline for remedial action in this case is July 9 2012.