To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will institute a study into the dangers to employee and public health arising from legionella in power station cooling towers.

Legionella bacteria are naturally occurring organisms widely distributed in the environment and from time to time are known to exist in power station cooling towers. There have however been no documented outbreaks anywhere in the world of legionnaire's disease among employees or the general public, associated with large natural updraft cooling towers such as those used in power stations. Neither has the public health laboratory service found any such association in its outbreak investigations. Research is under way to determine whether or not the absence of any outbreaks of legionnaire's disease can be attributed to the relative isolation of power station cooling towers; or whether some design feature of these towers renders them unable or less likely to disperse legionella in an aerosol form that can be ingested and cause legionnaire's disease. The Department is keeping in close touch with this research.