Businesses that don’t take the required steps to mitigate the risks of Legionella infection run the risk of stiff penalties. Automating your Legionella compliance processes will reduce risk, provide a healthy work environment for your employees, and can save you money in the long run.
Legionella bacteria can cause severe health conditions, including the potentially-fatal Legionnaires’ disease. Taking precautions to reduce the risks of exposure to Legionella is a duty for any employer, landlord, or person in control of a business or residential premises, according to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA).
Legionnaires disease is a severe pneumonia caused by the inhalation of contaminated droplets of water containing the Legionella bacteria. It causes inflammation of the lungs and can cause long-term health problems, and even death.
Between 300 and 500 people in England and Wales are infected with Legionnaires’ disease every year, and the average mortality rate is 10%.
Because Legionella can be found in purpose-built water systems such as cooling towers, evaporative condensers as well as hot and cold water systems – it is vital that businesses mitigate the risks of infection.
Businesses are responsible for regularly conducting Legionella risk assessments. This includes monitoring your water temperature at regular intervals, flushing both hot and cold taps for two minutes, and recording results and retaining them for five years.
Your responsibility is to:
Landlords must be able to prove that they have assessed Legionella risk at their property, and are controlling identified risks. While there is no Legionnaire’s control certificate, not conducting risk testing can result in the following penalties:
Should there be loss of life through Legionnaires’ disease due to negligence, landlords can be prosecuted under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. Real penalties for Legionella non-compliance have included a £1.5 million fine, or 12 weeks in prison.
If the water temperatures in some or all parts of a water system are between 20 and 40 degrees Celsius, there is an increased risk of bacteria. Any water that is stored and re-circulated carries a higher risk of bacteria growth. Deposits such as rust, sludge, scale, organic matter, and biofilms provide a source of nutrients for the organism and can increase the risk for Legionella.
Pay attention to any system containing water in which Legionella could grow and be released in aerosol droplets:
Your risk assessment should include:
If you don’t have the required training, experience, and knowledge, or your site is too large and complex – you should consider installing an automated Legionella Compliance system.
At a minimum, Legionella risk assessments should be carried out every two years, but any site with large and complex water systems should carry out routine testing once every three months.
While manual Legionella testing can cost as little as £250 for straightforward projects with simple water systems, sites with complex requirements can cost in excess of £2000.
All businesses with five or more employees must keep written records of water testing dating back five years, according to UK law.
Their records should cover:
Smart, automated Legionella compliance systems can record all data and save it to the cloud, to be accessed on-demand.
Automating the Legionella process can provide a return on investment in as few as seven months, and provide savings in excess of £1700 per year. Smarter Technologies offers pipe temperature sensors, wireless tank temperature sensors, and automatic temperature testing and flushing units that are controlled via our smart building platform. This automated Legionella compliance system will ensure that your business stays compliant with guidelines on mitigating Legionella risks, as well as providing logs that are stored for five years.
An automated Legionella Compliance system can provide:
To find out more about this first-of-its-kind technology, read the comprehensive Legionella guide for businesses.
Smarter Technologies tracks, monitors, and recovers assets across the globe in real-time, providing asset tracking systems to the open market and fulfilling the world’s most complex asset tracking requirements. Our services cover a vast array of business sectors, products, and equipment from container or pallet tracking to military-grade devices; and can be used across a broad spectrum of industries.
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