Here's the BBC's account. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-18206191

It says wash your hands after handling compost especially before eating. I would have thought that was obvious.

The trade association rep points out the rarity of such cases.

So, the answer to your question is keep using what you are using.

I think that compost could now be more dangerous because households, in our area at least, are told to add food waste to their green re-cycling. Surely this cannot be good.

From that BBC report, putting any risk into perspective -

"Since 1990, of the 12 reported cases of Legionella potentially connected to the longbeachae microbe in Great Britain, only three are thought to be related to gardening.

"In the same period, the UK public has used well over a billion bags of compost.

"The exceptional rarity of these cases would seem to indicate that any associated risks are exceedingly minimal."

I quite like Homebase soil and with the offer you get lots for not too much money. Who does not wash their hands after touching soil or compost? Very few!

To be quite honest, people are brainwashed into good hygiene from an early age. We are told to wash this, spray that. Well what a load of codswallop. No one gets any natural resistance by exposing themselves to natures little bacteria that are all around like people used to. All this rubbish like bacteria on doorhandles, money, well of course there are, always have been, always will. So what.
All that happens is that being overclean leads to build ups of the really nasty bacteria that are kept in check by all the other ones. Hence MRSA etc.
Perhaps i've been lucky that after 30 years of messing around in the garden not wearing gloves and having permanent soil under my fingernails and eating with soil covered hands that i haven't caught anything. Or as i prefer to believe, nature has done it's job on my body.

Having said that, anyone buying compost with green waste deserve all they get :)

What else should you use ? Nothing else.

So many news items are like this. With 24 hour news coverage they fill the airways with anything including so much exaggerated nonsense that tries to make news when there is no news there worth reporting.

Most people die in their own homes so obviously it is dangerous to stay at home. That's the quality of the logic in these stories.

In an era where a teenager weighs over 60 stones, and has to be chipped out of her bedroom, and carried over a bridge, and craned into an ambulance, to be carted off to hospital for killing herself with FOOD. Why worry about us gardeners and our compost? Bad enough trying to make us feel guilty about peat in compost/garden chemicals /watering plants in drought, and banning effective pest remedies.

The Legionella is carried in the WATER in the compost so should only be a problem if it is damp, or maybe when dry it forms a sort of 'aerosol' of dust when handled. The danger would come from inhaling something. It is almost certainly one of these very remote risks which some people are more vulnerable to than others.
There is probably far more danger digging and weeding in your garden because of tetanus (how many cases of that a year amongst gardeners?) As somebody who grew up building 'castles' out of cow pats at age 7, I have no worries about these kinds of things and I think if you are healthy and have been exposed to all these bugs most of your life you probably have a robust immune system.
If worried, then use your own home made compost, which is much better stuff anyway!

my gran used to say "youve got to eat a peck of dirt before you die" Dont quite know what it means but i expect i am well on the way

What a load of muck... I totally agree with Scrumpygraham that we are far to obsessed with being 'clean' and spraying for this or that and washing our hands in antibacterial liquid soap. Everything we touch every day is covered in bacteria and the majority of them are good bugs! Whilst I do try to remember to wash my hands, with good old-fashioned bar soap, I don't worry if I'm not able to. Setting up a show stand at Gardening Scotland you would never eat or drink at all if you washed your hands prior to doing so; yes there are loos but you've got a several minute walk there and back to them and just to eat a biscuit or sandwich... I think not.

Jenfren a 'peck' was a unit of measure so your gran was saying you had to eat the equivalent of 2 gallons of dirt before you died.

Yes I thought it was just another scare story. We get them every day. As one newspaper editor once said "Bad news sells". I thought I would ask what the expert gardeners thought and continue to use my Homebase compost.

I sometimes feel us gardeners are the only ones left with any common sense.........

I agree Pamg

can you buy compost without green food waste in it?

Yes. Just that not many places sell it at the moment. But next year I think more will be available. Trouble is, it will be more expensive than the rubbish that's currently available so people won't buy it. Then they'll start complaining because the cheap stuff they've bought is rubbish.
Anyway, Jack's Magic, made by Westlands, and Humax original, owned by Scotts of miracle gro fame, are the two that certain garden centres are trialling at the moment. Both are excellent composts and have been around for a long time.
Probably the best composts are made by Keith Singleton.
He's mail order only, but he has a tremendous range of quality composts.

I'd just like to have seen one of Bertie's cowpat castles...

Wonder what Berties mum thought........

Lol perhaps she didn't know Pamg

most bacteria fro food waste is killed in the large council greenwaste schemes. so there should be minimal risk. probably a greater risk from kissing the hubby [especially if he isnt yours ! haha]

I've just evicted my third toad........from my grobags.......disconcerting as I plant my tomatoes........

If he isn't yours ??? :-000 Lol!

I don't know how they are getting in! If its not them frightening the bejazuz out of me the robin gives me dark looks as he flies in to feed the brood! I love wildlife but there is a limit.......

Pamg toads are wonderful beings to have in your garden, they eat beetles, slugs, snails, etc and are wonderful gardeners friends. One overwintered one year in a pot in our front porch - now how he managed that I am not sure but he (or perhaps it was a 'she') was as happy as larry.

I was at the allotment today, filled up my watering can from my butt, and couldn't work out why the water wasn't coming out. You can guess the rest....but here goes anway, took the rose off to check that wasn't blocked, then decided to empty the water out and yes, out popped a little frog out of the spout.
At least it had a nice bath.

I was kneeling with my hands in the grobag when it began to move, first one long green leg.....then another........
Luckily I,d got my gloves on so onto the shovel with my hand over so he didn,t fall and under the willow next to the pond, the question is have I got three toads or the same one three times?

I always get ambushed by frogs when I clean the pump in my pebble pool. I love them, but I think I jump higher than they do when they leap out!

Ithoughtthat I was having a dizzy spell when the compost started moving.....

Well - I think it's reasonable to expect frogs in a pebble pool, but toads in compost......!

That is where they hibernate

I wouldn't have expected that, but it is perfectly reasonable and sensible from a toad's point of view! I once found one (or a frog, not sure which) in a pile of wooden planks. I moved them, and it squeaked. When I was a girl there was a "frog farm" near where I lived in Surrey and boxes of them would be transported by train. While they were waiting to be loaded, it would sound like hundreds of baby birds. (I dread to think of their destination)