12-Oct-2000
SINGAPORE, Oct 12 (HealthAnswers) - The Ministry of Environment has begun drawing up regulations to control legionella bacteria in cooling towers and water fountains.

Senior Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Sidek Saniff, announced this at a seminar, "Towards A Better Maintained Indoor Air Quality" yesterday.

The seminar is organised by the National Safety Council of Singapore, the Building and Construction Authority and the Association of Property and Facility Managers. The aim is to encourage building managers to adopt a more structured maintenance programme for their air-conditioning cooling towers and water fountains.

The regulation is expected to be introduced soon, followed by a dialogue session with the related industries. This is a measure the ministry is taking after the recent legionella outbreak in Melbourne, Australia which affected more than a hundred people and resulted in two deaths.

Cooling towers and other man-made water systems in modern buildings and homes have been frequently implicated as the source of this infection. While no outbreak has occurred in Singapore, this possibility in future cannot be ruled out, given our densely built and urbanised environment.

"With most people spending 90 percent of their time indoor, a clean and healthy indoor environment is essential to their well-being. This is particularly true in the work place, where poor indoor air quality will invariably lead to a drop in the overall productivity because of comfort problems, ill health and absenteeism due to sickness," said the minister.

The Senior Minister of State added that improving the work environment to achieve greater productivity is a sound investment to help the building industry gain a better understanding of the critical elements involved in maintaining good indoor air quality.