02/03/2009 - Dirty water-coolers health alert
Dirty water-coolers may be putting the health of workers in Scotland at risk, according to a survey by environmental-health watchdog Consumer Focus Scotland.
It reports that a quarter of plumbed-in and bottle-supplied coolers in workplaces, schools, care homes and leisure centres are contaminated by bacteria. But although the types of bugs found may cause illness among people in vulnerable groups, they are unlikely to affect people in good health.
Nevertheless, says spokeswoman Mary Lawton: "We feel the legislation governing the quality of water from coolers should be reviewed. These findings suggest that the cleanliness of water coolers has become a low priority for some organisations who have installed them.
"The time is right for an awareness campaign, not just to get organisations to make sure the coolers on their premises are cleaned and maintained regularly, but also to get people to use them in such a way that they don't contaminate them for the next person. While there are regulations for bottled water, these are applicable at time of bottling and there is no legislation specifically for plumbed-in water coolers so we had to take tap water standards as covering these dispensers."
Copyright © Press Association 2009
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