Workers walk-out amid Legionnaires fears

5:47pm Tuesday 12th June 2007

WORKERS at a chemical plant staged a walk-out amid fears of a break out of Legionnaires' disease.

Two men working at Artenius UK Ltd, on the Wilton estate, between Middlesbrough and Redcar, were confirmed as having contracted the disease at the weekend.

In an unrelated case, a contractor working on a different part of the site was tested for Legionnaire's disease after reporting to his doctor.

About 70 of his colleagues from Amec and Manturbo, who are working on an overhaul at SembCorp, on another part of the site, decided to leave work on Monday until the results were known.

Howard Ashurst, of Amec, told the Northern Echo that the precautionary tests had proved negative and the workers were due to return to the plant on Wednesday.

He said: "One of the workers became ill and went to see his GP, who quite rightly ran some tests.

"While that was going on, his colleagues decided to stay away from work.

"The tests on him and the equipment being used at the site were negative, and the men are expected to be back at work on Wednesday."

SembCorp said there was no reason to believe anyone was at risk on the site.

A spokesman said: "Investigations over the weekend have verified that all SembCorp cooling towers are in specification and none of our other facilities are currently showing any cause for concern."

An investigation is continuing into how the two workers at the Artenius plant contracted the infection. It is not yet known if the two cases are linked or whether they caught the bug at work.

One of the men affected, a 47-year-old, was admitted to Middlesbrough's James Cook University Hospital last week and was said to be responding well to treatment.

The other, a 54-year-old contractor, was taken to hospital on Thursday and released the following day.

Neither have been named.

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