Councillor seeks legionella action

This is not a problem that is unique to Christchurch.

More outbreaks of legionnaires’ disease could occur if health recommendations continue to be ignored, a city councillor says.

Six people were hospitalised in Christchurch in April and May with the disease – a serious and sometimes fatal form of pneumonia.

The cases were linked to a cooling tower in the Hillsborough area, which tested positive for the Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 bacterium on April 8.

No new cases have been noti- fied in the last month, and the Canterbury District Health Board has declared it no longer a public health risk.

Health officials and the Christchurch City Council have been working with representatives from the air conditioning industry to ensure water-based cooling systems are properly maintained but the latest outbreak has highlighted the hazard posed by poorly maintained water cooling towers.

The legionella bacteria can live in water-based cooling systems and can become dangerous when airborne.

Businesses with such systems are supposed to regularly sample and, where necessary, treat them to prevent the bacteria from circulating.

Ten years ago Ross Hern, 56, Peter Jones, 48 and Valmai Finlayson, 87, died of legionnaires’ disease in Christchurch Hospital.

Their deaths followed an outbreak of 19 legionella cases in southwest Christchurch.

Experts giving evidence at a coroner’s inquest compared the outbreak to some of the worst worldwide in the past few decades.

The coroner could not pinpoint the origin of the infection but a water cooling tower in Hornby was investigated as a possible source.

He recommended that cooling tower owners or operators should be required to register their towers with local authorities and that testing for legionella should be done at least monthly.

His findings were endorsed by the Christchurch City Council, which sent letters to both the Ministry of Health and the then Department of Building and Housing supporting the tighter regulations.

The recommendations do not appear to have been acted on.

At yesterday’s council meeting Cr Yani Johanson brought a notice of motion asking for a formal report on what progress had been made in implementing the coroner’s recommendations.

He said it was serious public health issue and the city council should be taking every step it could to ensure the risk of another legionella outbreak was minimised.

If the coroner’s recommendations were implemented, authorities could respond faster in the event of a legionella outbreak as they would have an accurate record of where all the cooling towers were.

A regular testing regime would also reduce the risk of outbreaks occurring in the first place, Johanson said.

‘‘This is not a problem that is unique to Christchurch.’’ The city council’s drive to be smoke-free has been thwarted outside its own offices.

Christchurch City councillors endorsed a plan yesterday to make spaces outside the main entrances and exits of all council-owned buildings, including the Civic Offices, service centres, libraries, recreation centres and community halls, smoke-free by January 2016. The city’s 2400 bus stops and 435 bus shelters will also be smokefree.

But an area directly outside its Civic Offices facing Worcester Boulevard cannot be smoke-free because of a nearby cafe’s outdoor dining area.

Chief planning officer Mike Theelen said the cafe had a separate lease agreement with land owner Ngai Tahu, which meant the council could not impose a restriction around the area.

Outdoor dining areas would be excluded from the policy, but that was something the council could look at in the future, council staff said.

Health promoters have been lobbying the council to do more to discourage smoking by increasing smoke-free areas, after medical research suggesting that, on average, smokers die 10 years earlier than non-smokers. About 13.5 per cent of Christchurch’s population are regular smokers, according to the 2013 Census.

Council buildings are already smoke-free, as are parks, sports fields and playgrounds.

The policy brings Christchurch in line with Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Tauranga, which have already designated bus passenger shelters and stops smokefree. It would remain voluntary and unenforceable.

Cr Andrew Turner said the move allowed the council to take a progressive role in reaching its goal of being smoke-free by 2025.

Cr Glenn Livingstone said people wanted Christchurch to be a clean, green city and extending the smoke-free policy would help achieve that.