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Health Protection Agency fined for E.coli slipup

The Health Protection Agency has been fined £25,000 plus £20,000 in costs for exposing several employees to the risk of infection of E. coli bacteria.

The HPA provides support and advice regarding health issues to the NHS, local authorities, emergency services, arms-length bodies and the Department of Health.

HPA staff were working at the Centre for Infections in Colindale in October 2007 when an amount of bacteria spilled onto the floor of the site waste-discard facility as it was being disposed of.

A Health and Safety Executive's investigation found that ‘there was an overall failure to ensure safe handling of the bacteria which is classified as Hazard Group 3 waste’, a statement by the HSE said.

Biological agents are classified into one of the four hazard groups 1-4 according to their level of risk of infection, 4 being the highest.

‘Specifically, HPA had failed to assess the risk involved in the waste transfer and disposal process of E.coli O157 and had not properly trained employees involved in this work to ensure it was carried out in accordance with standard operating procedures.’

Some of the equipment used in this process had also been identified as being defective 18 months prior to the incident, but no action was taken to rectify this, the HSE said.

HPA pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 at City of London Magistrates court in May.

Section 2(1) states that ‘it shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees’.

HSE specialist inspector Jennifer Higham, said E. coli O157 is a highly infectious and potentially deadly bacterium and there are well established practices for handling this safely. But in this case, these practices were not met, exposing several staff and potentially their families to a real risk of infection.

‘HPA should have developed and implemented a safe system of work for dealing with E.coli O157 and for transferring and inactivating Hazard Group 3 waste,’ she said.

‘Equipment should have been well maintained and employees should have had appropriate training. This was a serious breach of HPA's duty to ensure the health, safety, and welfare at work of all its employees.’

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