After Consumer Focus Scotland found 26 percent water coolers in Edinburgh, the Lothian and Borders failing in one or more safety and hygiene standards, the consumer watchdog has cautioned that unclean water coolers could be a risk factor, affecting the health of the Scots.

Almost one in four water coolers that failed Consumer Focus’ contamination tests, were functional in schools, care homes, office premises and leisure centers. The watchdog has called for a tightening of the safety rules, more so as most of the 22 water dispensers that failed – out of a total of 87 examined – had some kind of bacterial contamination.

The Consumer Focus team found coliforms - a soil and gut originating bacteria – in 14 samples, which they said was an indication of fecal contamination. While some bacteria revealed unclean and ill-maintained pipe work; others indicated ‘cross contamination,’ with people drinking directly from the tap or touching it with saliva-tainted bottles.

Issuing a health warning with regard to dirty water coolers, Mary Lawton, from Consumer Focus Scotland, said: “The time is right for an awareness campaign, not just to get organizations to make sure coolers on their premises are cleaned and maintained regularly, but also to get people to use them in such a way that they don’t contaminate them for the next person.”