Hi, I've just received what I believe to be a bogus email claiming they have reported my company to the HSE on having air con invertors inside the building claiming they are giving off FCC gas and can cause pneumonia. They claim we have five when we only have 1 air con unit. Can anyone guide me in the right direction on info on this matter?

can't see an air-conditioning unit having anything to do with emitting Fluid Catalytic Cracking gas given these are emitted at refineries. Obviously a confusion of the F-gas regulations and CFC's. A single unit unless on a major scale would probably not fall under the regs but check with your service contractor. Units do not emit CFCs but they do leak over time however modern units are filled with other refrigerants and old units get regassed using non CFC products. They are designed as sealed exchange units like your fridge at home so the only discharge is heat. Sounds like a set if cowboys trying to drum up business and you can guarantee if they get on site the unit will be condemned and a new one required.

lisar From your brief information I agree with the other responders that the e-mail is scaremongering. It's best not to reply to whoever sent the e-mail. However, it might be helpful to tell HSE about it. Hopefully, HSE would be able to set your mind at rest by confirming that they have received no report as alleged in the e-mail about your company's air conditioning system. Also, if the e-mail has been sent out to other companies in your area, it's possible that HSE may have had queries from some of those companies. Therefore, it's possible that HSE might react by considering ways of publicising the dubious nature of the e-mail and advising companies/businesses to ignore it. Also, if the main purpose of the e-mail is to frighten recipients (i.e. by means of blatant lies) into engaging the sender to carry out urgent checks/repairs of their air conditioning systems, your local trading standards dept and/or the police might well be interested in the sender's dodgy methods! Furthermore, if the sender claims to have membership of any trade association or similar organisation, perhaps by including one or more logos on the e-mail or its website, try contacting the organisation/s to verify whether the membership is genuine or not. Such organisations tend to be keen to take appropriate actions against i) members who breach their code/s of practice, and ii) people/companies who falsely purport to be their members! Also, if other forum users have received similar e-mails, hopefully they'll respond to this thread.