SEQ pipeline - a case of Bligh fever ...

Further problems with the SEQ pipeline emerge with pipeline workers needing vaccinations for Q-Fever, something construction workers don't normally require.

Perhaps the workers need to be passed through RO membranes - nothing gets through them ...

Excerpt from Sunday Mail:

Q-Fever fear on pipeline

17 June 2007

Workers on the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project have been given a vaccination for a disease usually associated with meat workers.

Thirty pipeline workers assigned to the eastern section of pipe, which travels close to the Dinmore meatworks near Ipswich, were vaccinated for the disease called Q-Fever on May 24.

Q-Fever is associated with livestock and is a highly infectious sickness carried by animals and passed to humans.

The infection can be spread by direct contact with the body fluids of infected animals but also through the air, as the germ can survive for long periods even in harsh environments.

All meat workers are vaccinated against the disease, which causes a severe fever, chills, muscle pains, fatigue and severe headaches.

There had been rumours circulating that up to 20 pipeline workers had been infected by the fever.

But an official from the Department of Infrastructure has said that all workers have been inoculated against the disease.

"Thirsty workers were given the vaccination and one of them fainted with the needle, but nobody has actually contracted the disease," he said.

"The pipeline work is actually outside the Q-Fever zone so the vaccinations are a precaution."
The official also said the water quality in the pipeline will not be affected by the disease.

"The pipeline is underground and the water is under high pressure . . . we have no concerns."

See - Risk of SEQ pipeline worker infection.