Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline shuts down plant over Legionnaires' bacteria

AP ^ | August 11, 2015 | EMERY P. DALESIO

[John W]

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline shut down a plant Tuesday that produces inhaled medications after discovering the bacteria that causes Legionnaire's disease, a potentially fatal form of pneumonia.

The manufacturing plant in Zebulon, about 25 miles east of Raleigh, was closed after routine testing found the bacteria in a self-standing cooling tower. About 400 of the 850 employees who work in Zebulon were told to stay away until the towers are cleaned, officials for the London-based company said.

The company said in a statement that the cooling tower "does not come into contact with product manufactured at the facility."

[MeshugeMikey]

The manufacturing plant in Zebulon??

If I didnt know better..[ thanks to the article ] ..I might have assumed that the bacteria came from Planet Zebulan!

[fatnotlazy]

A few days ago, I watched a program about the disease when it first occurred and the intense investigation to identify the disease and where it came from. It was interesting that so many fell ill and many died, but there were quite a number who weren't affected at all. Not only did the guests who stayed in or went into the hotel affected, but also people walking down the street in front of or across the street from the hotel. Yet, the employees of the hotel were unaffected by the disease.

Eventually, investigators deduced that the bacteria came from the HVAC system, although they never definitively proved it because by the time they got around to extracting the bacteria, it had already died or dissipated.

[headstamp 2]

I saw this all the time when I worked in commercial HVAC back in the 80’s. Cooling tower water was routinely never treated properly.

The water used to get so thick full of algae you could slice it with a knife. It was like pudding.

Customers would never spend the money to have the water treated with a regular PM program.

This was a disaster waiting to happen.

[virgil]

GSK appears to have an environmental monitoring program, and presumably a good maintenance program. I wonder how the bacteria got in their cooling tower.

[aposiopetic]

I'm guessing SOPs mandate periodic microbial counts, but not in general for specific pathogens. If total counts (CFUs) are below threshold, everything appears copacetic. When they exceed, you look further to see what is driving up the counts, and in this case it was Legionella pneumophila.

This is just a guess, however.

[headstamp 2]

I would say that with cooling tower water, things can run off the rails very quickly especially in the hot weather.

You are constantly oxygenating “warm” water by blowing air through it while it cascades down through in many cases wooden slats. Its a perfect environment to grow things.

A cooling tower is like a microbe manufacturing plant constantly running 24/7. It also constantly adds in fresh water to replace water that has evaporated thus you have a constantly changing environment for any water treatment regimen to deal with.