Store Told Of Disease Dangers
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday June 16, 1987
The management of a Soul Pattinson's chemist's store in Wollongong was warned 18 months ago that its air-conditioning unit was a potential breeding ground for Legionnaire's Disease.
The store's cooling tower, named yesterday as the most likely source of an outbreak of the disease which killed eight people, was shut down in early May
Despite the warning, sent in a letter from Carrier Air Conditioning on December 17, 1985, to the manager of the store, at 187 Crown Street, the company had not used chemicals to clean out its system, as Carrier had recommended.
The general manager of Soul Pattinson, Mr Peter Robinson, said his company had "certainly been ignorant" of the fact that failure to use chemicals to clean out air-conditioning cooling towers significantly increased the risk of legionella contamination.
But asked about the 1985 letter, Mr Robinson said: "I haven't seen a letter of that nature, but I wasn't in this position then.
"Someone did mention that to me, I must admit, but I went through all the records here and was unable to find it."
He could not remember who had mentioned the letter.
The Herald has learnt that the letter was sent to about 10 Carrier clients in Wollongong who did not use chemicals to clean their buildings' cooling towers. It followed an outbreak of Legionnaire's Disease in a club in the city earlier the same month.
There was, and still is, no legislation governing the maintenance of air-conditioning units anywhere in Australia, according to the NSW Department of Health.
The Minister for Health, Mr Anderson, declared yesterday that the Legionnaire's Disease epidemic was over.
Given the 10-day incubation period of the legionella bacteria and the results of the tests on the air conditioning units in the region, the department was sure the epidemic was finished.
By matching legionella bacteria types from air conditioners with the types infecting the Wollongong victims it was found that the cooling tower of the air-conditioning system of the Soul Pattinson building was the most likely source of the epidemic.
"DANGER: Do not switch to conditioner," a sign warned in the back room of the Soul Pattinson store yesterday.
"Fuses pulled on tower, pump and fan. Isolation switches on tower and pump switched off. 3.45 pm, 23/5/87," a second sign reassured.
It now seems almost certain that it was on that Saturday, May 23, that any chance of infection in Australia's worst Legionnaire's outbreak was stamped out.
The Department of Health believes it was a simple flick of that switch which sparked the epidemic that struck down as many as 68 people.
It is hard to lay the blame. The story of the Legionnaire's epidemic wins Murphy's law - if anything can go wrong, it will - a Brownie point, and that's about it.
It probably causes Mr Ken Wilson, part-time pharmacist, much anxiety.
Mr Wilson, the department has told Soul Pattinson's management, may have activated the contaminated unit during peak shopping periods on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings - the only two times he was on duty.
Mr Wilson said he could not remember the last time he switched on the unit, but thought it was late March - when it was still warm. On occasions he had even turned it off because it was too noisy, he said.
As far as both he and the daytime store manager, Mr John Ferguson, were aware, the unit was working perfectly. Mr Ferguson had apparently not used the unit at all six weeks before the epidemic because of cooler weather.
Early in May, health inspectors cleaning cooling towers and desperately searching for the source of the epidemic, noticed pigeons nesting in a nearby, disused cooling tower.
According to air-conditioning contractors, a dead pigeon was found floating in the Soul Pattinson tower on two subsequent occasions.
It is believed that a rotor blade may have killed pigeons nesting in the unit, giving the legionella bacteria flesh on which to feed.
Prevailing weather conditions at the time of the outbreak - humid, light easterly winds - and shopping centres packed with Easter crowds, meant it was the worst time for legionella to be escaping from any tower up to 200 metres east of the Crown Gateway Shopping Centre.
During cooler months, the Gateway's air-conditioning unit draws 100 per cent on outside air, and so it was at the time of the outbreak.
The Department of Health has concluded that infected air from the Soul Pattinson building was blown 60 metres to the air intakes of the Gateway shopping centre.
However, there is still doubt about how some victims contracted the disease, and Mr Anderson said there was a "remote possibility" that some victims "could have become infected" at Wollongong Hospital. Dr Adams is now holding an inquiry into the handling of the epidemic, and Mr Anderson said that any criticisms would be dealt with.
Obviously mindful of the difficulty in laying blame, Mr Anderson yesterday said: "Having satisfied myself that the epidemic is over, what we now have to do is await Dr Adams's debriefing.
"The consequence of dealing with that is ... as far as humanly and legislatively possible, to prevent it happening again."
© 1987 Sydney Morning Herald