The issue at its Escanaba Mill in Michigan involves blastomycosis, an infection caused by the Blastomyces fungus which is endemic in Southern, Southeastern and Midwestern states of the USA and Canada.
Billerud said that on 3 March the company learned of a number of atypical pneumonia infections among some of its employees at the Escanaba Mill via the local Public Health Delta & Menominee Counties (PHDM) organisation.
Brian Peterson, operations vice president for the mill, said: “Initial testing has confirmed that some of these cases were caused by a fungal infection called blastomycosis.
“From the moment we became aware, we have been leveraging all available public health resources and other professionals to quickly understand any and all measures we can take to support our colleagues and implement proactive steps toward prevention.”
According to PHDM, as of April 10, there had been 19 confirmed cases of blastomycosis among Escanaba employees and contractors. In addition to the 19 confirmed cases, a further 74 people have been classified as probable cases.
Escanaba has 830 employees and makes graphic papers for commercial printing and speciality papers for labels and converting. Annual capacity is around 700,000tpa. The mill dates back to 1911.
Information from the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) states that although most people who breathe in Blastomyces spores don’t get sick, some people will develop symptoms such as a fever and cough, and the infection can sometimes become serious if it is not treated.
Peterson said Billerud was following the recommendations of a number of experts, “including implementing numerous, proactive steps to protect the health and safety of our employees, contractors and visitors”.
This includes a wide range of measures including deep cleaning in high traffic areas throughout the mill, inspection of ventilation systems and the replacement of filters, and testing various raw materials coming into the mill.
“Identifying the source of the fungal outbreak can be difficult because the blastomyces fungus is endemic to our area and there has never been an industrial outbreak of this nature documented anywhere in the US from which we can learn,” Peterson explained.
“Nonetheless, we are working closely with local, state and national health officials and together we are making every effort to identify exposures common among ill Escanaba employees.”
Mill operations had been uninterrupted, but yesterday (13 April) Billerud decided that a temporary shutdown would be necessary to deal with the situation.
Christoph Michalski, Billerud president and CEO, stated: “Our top priority now and always is protecting the health and safety of our employees and contractors who work at our Escanaba Mill.
“We care deeply about their well-being and are doing everything we can to protect them and identify and address the root cause of the blastomycosis fungal infections.”
“As a precautionary measure, we will temporarily idle the Escanaba Mill for up to three weeks to facilitate additional proper cleaning based on recommendations from NIOSH [National Institute for Occupational Health & Safety] and other organisations, which requires larger portions of the mill to be vacant while this work is performed.”
Michalski said the likely financial impact would be “limited” because the production at the Escanaba Mill was already being adjusted to meet current market demand.
According to the CDC, blastomycosis is not contagious and does not spread from person to person or between animals and people. There have been no reported cases in Europe.
Sweden-headquartered Billerud employs more than 6,000 people across its worldwide operations and had sales of SEK42.6bn (£3.3bn) last year. It has ten production units in Sweden, Finland and the USA.
The group’s share price is down nearly 20% since the start of the year and was at SEK104.20 this morning (52-week high: SEK156.20, low: 100.70).
