B&Q's IN HOT WATER

Deadly Bacteria found in spa pool

More than 50,000 customers were exposed to the risk of deadly Legionnaires' desease as they walked around a DIY store, a court heard.

B&Q has been fined £20,000 by magistrates who heard its Longwell Green store had a working spa pool on display to the public which contained water contaminated with potentially lethal bacteria.

The bacteria were discovered by health officials from South Gloucestershire Council who conducted tests on the pool as they investigated an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the district.

Yesterday, the Hampshire-based company admitted failing to ensure shoppers and staff at the store were not exposed to the risk.

North Avon magistrates fined B&Q the maximum amount they could impose for breaching health and safety regulations and also ordered the company to pay the council's £8,405 costs. It must also pay its own costs, estimated at £60,000.

Juliet Gill, prosecuting for South Gloucestershire Council, said there had been two cases of Legionnaires' disease in the district in 2005.

She said the only common link between the two people was that they had visited the B&Q store at Longwell Green, and when tests were carried out on the Alberta brand spa pool, Legionnella bacteria were discovered.

The court was told the bacteria are dormant when the water temperature is lower than 23 degrees centigrade but the spa pool water was at 36C.

Ms Gill said the bubbling and movement of the water in the pool created the conditions under which the infection could spread - an "aerosol" of tiny water droplets containing the bug which can be breathed in - placing visitors to the store at risk.

She said: "During the two months the pool was on display, 510,000 people were potentially subjected to Legionnaires disease during the time the spa pool was in operation.

"People not in the immediate vicinity were exposed to the risk during much of April."

The Health and Safety Executive describes Legionnaires' disease as a potentially fatal form of pneumonia which can affect anybody but mainly strikes those who are susceptible because of old age, illness, immune system weakness or smoking.

It can cause fever and chills, coughs, muscle pains, headaches, diarrhea, mental confusion and occasionally liver and kidney damage.

Nicholas Flaggan QC, for B&Q, said, although the company had admitted a breach of health and safety legislation, bosses at the company's headquarters had given specific instructions to staff that spa baths on display were not to be filled with water because of the health risks.

It was later discovered that the outbreak of Legionnaires' disease, which led South Gloucestershire Council to test the spa pool, did not originate from the B&Q store.

Mr Haggan said: "We were not the source of the infection, we did not cause an infection. The company very much regrets this set of circumstances ever arose."

by John Le Couteur