National Housing Maintenance Forum
Setting the standards for repairs and maintenance
Evicting Legionella: Don't allow the bacteria to take up residence!
In the current economic climate there is considerable pressure to be more efficient with your limited resources. This article can be used as a catalyst for reviewing your current status with respect to legionellosis risk management.
Those with water hygiene responsibility for their organisation must take the right management decisions and justify their strategy:
- Are you doing too much or too little?
- How effective are the risk management systems you have in place?
The management of legionellosis risk falls under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002. The HSE have issued an Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) & Guidance document ‘L8’ Legionnaires’ disease – the control of Legionella bacteria in water systems to provide practical guidance with regard to legionellosis risks.
In 2003 the HSE published additional guidance “Essential information for providers of residential accommodation” (http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg376.pdf ). This document provides useful guidance on management, responsibility and assessment for providers of residential accommodation.
To review your strategy you need to look at two aspects:
1 Management system
2 Technical and operational aspects of our water systems
An independent compliance audit is strongly recommended to review management systems.
Independent legionellosis risk assessments are required to check technical and operational aspects. Use a consultant not a contractor. Contractors sell water treatment, disinfection, etc and may use a risk assessment to justify it.
Author of this article
Daniel Pitcher
Projects Director for Water Hygiene Centre
This article first appeared in the 2010 bulletin publication.
Read the original publication here
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