Legionnaires' Disease

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:12 pm on 8 October 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:12, 8 October 2019

I thank the Member for that question and drawing attention to the advice that Public Health Wales, drawing on wider UK expertise in this area, has provided to citizens and to businesses in Barry. The last press release containing advice for members of the public and for businesses was released in September. Since then, the incident management team that has been set up has continued to take action in the Barry area. It's due to meet next on 21 October. It will look at the latest information, including, for example, the recent testing of all four registered local water cooling towers in Barry, none of which turned out to be a source of the legionella bacteria. 

Now, the incident management team will stay in place for six months beyond the latest incident, and the latest individual to be identified as suffering from legionnaire's disease was in August of this year. So, the incident management team will stay in place at least until the early months of next year. It will continue to work with businesses, it will continue to pursue any new avenues of inquiry that become available to it, and it will continue to provide advice for local citizens of the actions that they can take of the sort that David Melding set out: removing unused taps and shower heads, draining water bowsers and garden hoses, using commercial screen washes in vehicles, and so on—all of which are practical things that individuals can do and which will reduce the risk of further incidence of legionnaire's disease in Barry over the months ahead.