TEST results which will reveal if a cooling tower in Pinvin was responsible for a second case of the potentially fatal legionnaires' disease are due today.

Wychavon District Council and the Health and Safety Executive launched an inquiry after an employee at Polestar Varnicoat in Pinvin was struck down with the disease last week.

Wychavon's environmental protection manager, Geoff Carpenter, confirmed that a cooling tower at the printing company's site in Terrace Road was closed down and officials took water samples, which were sent to a laboratory to be analysed, to establish whether the tower was the source of the infection.

Many other companies within a 500-metre radius of the factory had also been visited by council officials.

Outbreaks of legionnaires' disease come from water systems where temperatures are warm enough to encourage growth of the bacteria, but the disease cannot be passed from person to person or from drinking contaminated water.

Many have been linked to installations like cooling towers and evaporative condensers which can spread droplets of water over a wide area.

Under general health and safety law, employers have a duty to identify and assess sources of risk and prepare a scheme or course of action for preventing or controlling the risk.

Health and safety inspector based in Worcester, Tony Woodward, said: "Our investigations are ongoing. Once it has been established where the source of the disease stems from, we will decide what action follows."

Mark Jackson, Varnicoat's health and safety systems manager, said the company follow Health and Safety Executive guidelines on preventing the risk of legionnaires' disease.

He added that the closure of one of their cooling towers had not affected the business in any way.

The Varnicoat employee, a man in his 60s, is still recovering in Worcestershire Royal Hospital, where his condition is improving.

This was the second case of legionnaires' disease in this area - the first case, thought to be a one-off and involving a person working near the same area, was diagnosed last August.