National Museum of Scotland served notice after Legionnaires' outbreak

The National Museum of Scotland has been served an improvement notice by health inspectors investigating the outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the city.

Edinburgh City Council said the notice related to staff training and not the operation of cooling towers.

Two people have died and nearly 90 people have been treated as either confirmed or suspected cases since the outbreak began two weeks ago.

The council notice requires the museum to ensure that key staff members receive appropriate training in the management of water systems in the building.

A council spokesman said it did not mean that the museum, on Chambers Street in the city centre, was the source of the outbreak, which has hit the south-western suburbs of the city.

The HSE has been unable to pinpoint a source of the Legionnaires’ outbreak in south west Edinburgh last month but there are six possible locations.

Two previous notices have been served on industrial sites in the south-west of Edinburgh relating to the maintenance of cooling towers.

Chemical company Macfarlan Smith Ltd was contacted by the Health and Safety Executive on Monday.

Two improvement notices were served ordering the firm to carry out “thorough cleaning” of one its cooling towers and improve “provision of access for inspection and maintenance” of the heat removal device.

Last Friday, the executive served a similar notice on North British Distillery Company Ltd for a failure to devise and implement a sustained and effective biocide control programme in one cooling tower at its site, which is also on Wheatfield Road, in the Gorgie area of the city.

Robert Air, 56, was the first man to die from the disease on June 5.

A second man from the Gorgie area of the city died on Thursday evening in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. The man, who was in his forties, had “significant” pre-existing health conditions, NHS Lothian said.

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