Feature
Keeping Legionella At Bay: How Facilities Managers Can Help
UK cases of Legionnaires’ disease are rising. With this, it becomes even more important for facilities managers (FMs) to stay informed about the latest technologies and best practices in Legionella control to help to ensure better protection for the buildings they serve.
Here, Greg Rankin at Legionella testing expert Hydrosense explains how the next generation of rapid testing can help FMs to raise the bar in Legionella control and help maintain a safer environment for all building occupants.
The task for today’s FM is ever-complex. In this modern age of mounting legislation, environmental concerns and increasing onus on cost-efficiency, there are a multitude of considerations. Take the washroom, for example; as well as the principal concerns of hot water safety, water efficiency and hygiene, functionality and maintenance are increasingly important. Though, perhaps, not always a foremost priority for some commercial premises, not to be an understated concern amongst this is Legionella control.
Rising Risk
To better understand the need to place sharpened focus on Legionella control measures and practices, let’s first consider the scope of the risk.
As most FMs will already be aware, Legionella is a naturally occurring bacteria widespread in ponds, rivers, and other natural water systems. When this bacterium enters water systems in the built environment, conditions such as water temperature and ineffective disinfection levels, can encourage rapid growth. Common sources of Legionella bacteria in buildings include cooling towers, taps, showers, air conditioning units, and hot water tanks.
Legionnaires’ disease is a potentially fatal lung infection caused by inhaling droplets of water containing Legionella bacteria. If the infection is not contained or treated early on, it can cause confusion, coma, heart failure and ultimately death. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the death rate for Legionnaires’ disease in untreated immuno-suppressed patients
20 fmuk could be as high as 40-80%1 . Moreover, Legionnaires’ disease
has been seen to cause health related quality of life impacts to the large majority people who have recovered from it. These include fatigue, neurologic and neuromuscular symptoms, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
And by all accounts the Legionella risk is rising. In the most recent government statistics, there were 604 cases of Legionnaires’ disease reported in 2023 across England and Wales – the highest annual figure seen to date2
. And the expert consensus is that this
upward trend will continue as factors such as climate change, warming temperatures and increasingly complex water systems continue to contribute to the rapidly increasing count.
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