Legionella sanitary risks: Make the right choice

Understanding Legionella hidden sanitary risk. 

If you manage a facility that operates cooling towers, hot tubs or other equipment that utilizes freshwater, you are concerned by a hidden sanitary risk.

Commonly named Legionella, the pathogenic bacteria Legionella pneumophila thrive in water temperatures ranging from 20 to 45°C and is responsible for more than 98% of the legionnaire disease cases, a severe form of pneumonia, that is fatal in about 10% of cases.

Infection is caused by breathing in small droplets of water contaminated by the bacteria released by water systems such as cooling towers, showers, taps, jacuzzi and whirlpool spas. Fortunately, despite the risk it presents, It's important to note that the disease is not typically transmitted from person to person.

When Legionella pneumophila starts to colonize a pipe, it takes less than few days to reach the threshold that makes it a sanitary risk for human.

Therefore, official guidelines from many countries request not only to perform regular Legionella enumeration by accredited contract laboratories, but also to carry out a Legionella risk assessment.

Despite that, an average of 5 to 20% of all samples analyzed by microbiological laboratories return positive on Legionella This suggests that Legionella risk assessments are either not being performed or not conducted effectively.

Benefit of creating a Legionella prevention plan

Proactive Legionella testing is a key element in the risk assessment plan. But the right approach needs to be used.

Indeed, contract laboratories deliver results only after 10 days with ISO11731:2017. But Legionella can reach critical levels within only a few days. Therefore, only rapid microbiological methods allow controlling with efficiency such sanitary risk.

Diamidex offers different rapid microbial enumeration solutions depending on your needs. In addition to preventing outbreaks, keeping your Legionella prevention plan up-to-date also has other benefits.

• Improving the longevity of your pipes. Acting only when it will be necessary, you will use fewer biocides and other chemical involved directly or indirectly against Legionella.
• Reduce the number of sick work stoppages. Presence of Legionella in your facilities will probably have an impact on the number of sick employees, which will lead to a lost of productivity.
• Avoiding potential fines and consequences. Exceeding the Legionella threshold will have a direct impact in your business. In many countries, the direct consequence will be an obligation to close your facilities until you will correct the issue leading to significant lost in turnover. And on top of that, you expose yourself and your company to significant fines (up to 3 M€).

When balancing the cost of effective control of Legionella risk, the benefits of it and the associated risks, the right choice becomes evident, don’t you think so ?