Sickness outbreak at processing plant

All staff working in the fish processing section of the Scottish Sea Farms’ site at South Shian in Loch Creran, north of the Connel Bridge near Oban, experienced flu-like symptoms with severe vomiting, coughing and ‘tight’ chests in an illness which seems to have a duration of around three weeks.

According to Scottish Sea Farms, 20 of 40 staff reported for work and made management aware of symptoms of cold/flu. These members of staff were sent home with instructions to consult their GPs. Scottish Sea Farms immediately launched an investigation which included requesting a site visit from the local Environmental Health officer, the company says in a statement. It con tinued:

“Following a full internal investigation and an inspection by Environmental Health, no source for the illness was identified; all chemicals used for cleaning the plant were confirmed to be at acceptable and normal standards. Environmental Health officers were comfortable for processing to continue and saw no need for any further investigation.

Occupational health nurses carried out health assessments on members of staff as they returned to work, with lung function tests showing as normal or unchanged (from previous company medical tests). The members of staff that were ill returned to work over the course of the next few days and processing operations continued as normal.

Scottish Sea Farms take its responsibility as an employer and a food producer extremely seriously and would immediately stop operations if it felt that there was any risk to staff welfare or food safety.”