Grocers Halt Use of Mist Devices Linked to Illness : Public Health: Vons, Safeway, Alpha Beta and others took the step. A machine at a Louisiana store had been tied to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in which two people died.

Some of the nation’s largest supermarket chains on Wednesday halted the use of water mist systems to keep produce and seafood fresh after a machine in Louisiana was linked to an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that killed two people.

The supermarkets, including Vons, Safeway and Alpha Beta, took the precaution following reports that a mist machine at a Winn-Dixie supermarket in Bogalusa, La., was blamed for a November outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease. The disease is caused by bacteria that usually enters the lungs through water droplets.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, which is still investigating the incident, said in preliminary findings that the disease was contracted by inhaling the mist from the machine. Consumers are not in danger of contracting the bacteria by eating produce sprayed by the mist machine, officials said.

Winn-Dixie Stores Inc., which operates 1,250 supermarkets primarily in the Southeast, ordered removal of the machines from the 97 stores that have the device, which sprays a fine mist of water over produce.

“We’ve taken them all out,” said Lewis Libby, vice president of the Jacksonville, Fla.-based chain.

The Louisiana outbreak is the only known instance of a link between the machines and Legionnaires’ disease. No cases in California have been tied to the machine.

The Bogalusa incident triggered other supermarket chains, such as Kroger, to temporarily shut down their water mist systems until they received further information.

“We told our people to shut them down until further notice,” said Brian Dowling of Oakland-based Safeway Stores, which operates the mist machines in 150 of its 1,100 stores in the United States and Canada.

Mist machines are in nearly all 300 Vons stores in Southern California and all of those automated systems have been temporarily turned off, said company spokeswoman Vickie Sanders.

“We have no reason to even think there is a danger to customers,” said Sanders, “but we are doing this to err on the side of safety.”

The machines are not used in all supermarkets. Ralphs, for example, says its stores are not equipped with the devices.

However, mist machines have become an increasingly popular way for many supermarkets to cut labor costs. The automated systems replace employees who used a hose to spray water on produce and seafood.

“They came on the market a couple of years ago,” said Steve Koff, president of the Southern California Grocers Assn. “It’s a big labor-saving device. You don’t have to have a guy out there watering the stuff.”

There are several manufacturers and types of mist machines. The maker of Winn-Dixie’s mist machines, L. W. Beal of Portland, Me., said the company has had no previous reports of problems with the device.

Legionnaires’ bacteria are found “in any kind of machine that uses water and is not properly cleaned,” L. W. Beal said. “If a machine is properly cleaned you won’t have a problem.”

“This is the first time a community outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease has been traced to a mist machine of any type,” said Dr. Louise McFarland, a Louisiana state epidemiologist. “I don’t think anyone would ever have suspected it.”

In Bogalusa, a town of 16,000 residents 50 miles north of New Orleans, health officials launched an investigation to track down the source of the bacteria that has so far resulted in 34 confirmed cases of Legionnaires. Another 20 to 30 residents may have had the pneumonia-like disease.

After interviewing 70 people who got sick, health officials focused their attention on the Winn-Dixie store. A health official inspected the store for any source of water droplets and took a sample from the mist machine, which had gone without maintenance for one year.

Tests from the sample later revealed bacteria that matched those taken from some patients, officials said. Eight people died in the outbreak, but only two were confirmed as having the disease, officials said.

The store inpsection also found that it was difficult to clean out the mist machine’s water reservoir. In a preliminary recommendation, however, Louisiana officials said it would be “prudent” for owners of such mist systems to regularly clean out the machine’s reservoir.

Legionnaires’ disease, first identified in 1976 after an outbreak at an American Legion convention in Philadelphia killed 34 people, is caused by bacteria that thrive in cool, standing water. In Philadelphia, the bacteria were found in the air-conditioning system.

The Associated Press and United Press International contributed to this report.