Following is a roundup of news stories from across the globe featuring refrigeration and air conditioning stories.
In Virginia in the United States, a hospital was forced to relocate patients after discovering mould in its air conditioning units, the Herald Mail reported.
The Martinsburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center’s domiciliary was closed when safety officials at the hospital found “common” mould in the fan coils of the air conditioners, the medical center said.
"During the cleanup process, the delivery of care to our patients and the medical center’s daily operational activities will not be interrupted,” Ann R. Brown, medical center director, said in a news release.
The mould removal is expected to take about 60 days. The air conditioners were not connected to any other campus building or ductwork when the mould was found, officials said.
Dr. Jonathan Fierer, chief of staff at the Martinsburg center said that although the health risks from this type of mould exposure are very low, the medical center leadership felt the best course of action was to relocate about 175 patients as a result of the mould issue.
In China, the Xiamen News reported that poisonous ammonia gas leaked from a refrigeration plant in Xiamen’s mainland district, causing sweet potato leaves in nearby farmland to severely wilt.
A police statement said the leak occurred when workers were replacing a liquid ammonia gas cylinder supplying refrigeration equipment.
Two cargo owners remained at the plant after the leak until firefighters and police arrived and persuaded them to leave. All the workers and villagers in the surrounding area were evacuated.
A group of firefighters wearing gas masks went into the plant, found the source of the leak and sealed it successfully about an hour later.
