In April, an employee was hospitalized for pneumonia caused by the bacterium, causing employees to work smart for two weeks
The Arpab office in Matera will be closed for two weeks due to legionella. In recent months, an employee of the Regional Environment Agency had been hospitalized for pneumonia caused by the legionella bacterium. Then the checks, with the analyzes that revealed the presence of the bacterium. The employees of the Matera headquarters will work from home while the Matera headquarters are cleaned up. Legionella is a ubiquitous bacterium and spreads through city pipes and building water systems. The microorganism is carried by small nebulized water particles (aerosols) and can be easily inhaled through the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract.
The general director of the Agency, Donato Ramunno, explains what happened: “In relation to the presence of legionella in the Arpab headquarters in Matera, I would like to point out that our workplace safety managers had set up monitoring of legionella as early as March 2024, starting from the headquarters of Potenza, because it is foreseen by our risk assessment. It then continued in the first days of April at the Matera office, before and independently of the case of legionellosis which affected our employee, of whom I am pleased to report that he is in good health”.
The ASL – adds Ramunno – notified us of our employee’s illness only on April 30th. Considering that in the first monitoring we had only found legionella species 2-14, and not 1, we started sanitization actions. Following the ASL’s request for a new sampling, on 12 June, the presence of a culture that appears to be positive for legionella species 1 was ascertained.
Therefore, in order to remediate the entire hydraulic system to restore correct functioning, it was decided to close the headquarters for a period of 15 days and allow employees to work in Smart Working. The laboratory analyzes that are carried out in Matera will be delayed by a few days or carried out in the laboratories of Potenza”.
