LORDSTOWN GM Legionnaires' disease is focus of prevention
THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN
LORDSTOWN -- General Motors' Lordstown Assembly Plant has a long-standing program to prevent Legionnaires' disease, which is being blamed for the deaths of two autoworkers at another plant in Ohio.
The program at the Lordstown plant was developed by BetzDearborn of Hudson, which has been called in to advise Ford's engine-casting plant in Brook Park.
Tom Mock, a spokesman at the Lordstown plant, said BetzDearborn supplies chemicals used in the plant's water supply to prevent outbreak of the disease. He said daily or weekly tests are done on different parts of the system. BetzDearborn conducted a seminar on Legionnaires' disease for plant safety officials last June.
Mock said plant officials understand that local workers are concerned because of the outbreak of the deadly disease in Brook Park. A letter reassuring workers is included in a plant newsletter being distributed today.
Praise: A flier issued by United Auto Workers Local 1112 said Lordstown has one of the best prevention and testing programs in the industry. It said the plant's joint health and safety committee is auditing the testing procedures and using an outside firm to confirm test results. The audit is to be completed by Friday.
Four workers at the Ford plant contracted the disease March 14, and the plant was closed. Two of the workers died.
The plant, which has 2,500 workers, reopened Tuesday after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was called in to analyze water samples.
Legionnaires' is a form of pneumonia caused by a bacterium that can be inhaled when water is released into the air through air conditioners, steam or other means.