Water Hygiene Monitoring Regime

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1

What’s the Issue?

How do I establish a water hygiene monitoring control regime for my premises?

What is my obligation to implement a monitoring control regime for my premises?

Who can I appoint to undertake the tasks required within the monitoring control regime?

2

What is your obligation?

As an employer or someone who is in control of a premises, including landlords, it is your responsibility to take the correct precautions to reduce the risk of exposure to Legionella to others. It is a legal requirement under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the employer or person who controls the premises must appoint someone competent to help you meet your health & safety obligations & responsibilities.

3

Risks

If appropriate measures are not put into place, then this can result to an exposed risk of litigation & potential prosecution as well as a major health &safety hazard to others. This could then result in a detrimental effect to your company’s reputation and financial standing.

To make you aware of the importance of the risks involved there was a case in 2002 of an outbreak of Legionnaires disease which occurred in Barrow in Furness with 172 cases being reported. There were 7 fatalities. An employee of Barrow in Furness Borough Council, and the authority itself were charged with 7 counts of manslaughter. Subsequently cleared of manslaughter, the employee was fined £15,000, and the authority fined £125,000 for breaches of health & safety legislation.

4

How we can help?

Atom Water Treatment have a fully qualified and experienced team ready to support and assist with your current obligations and responsibilities to ensure you meet your legal requirements. Our team of experts can help you assess the potential risks to your premises, assist in managing these and put the necessary preventive measures in place.

Atom Water Treatment are committed to helping you to establish a full written monitoring regime to help identify the potential risks of Legionella and to help you remain compliant.

We are able to offer a full range of monitoring packages to suit your needs along with the instigation of a Legionella control water hygiene log book to ensure records are up to date and in line with the necessary requirements. If there is ever an outbreak in your area, then this will be the first port of call for the HSE inspector.

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0203 597 5035

In order to comply with the current guidelines of ‘BS 8580:2010, ACOP L8 4th Edition and HSG274’ the implementation of a water hygiene monitoring control regime is paramount to ensure the quality of water provided and to manage the risk of exposure to Legionella bacteria.

All hot and cold water systems, no matter what size, scale or complexity can present potential risks to the exposure of Legionella. Temperature control plays a vital role in helping to reduce the risk of Legionella in hot and cold water systems.

A ‘Water Hygiene Risk Assessment’ is normally the first step in identifying the potential risk of Legionella to any premises and will assist in establishing a control regime in managing and maintaining the water systems associated within the building. The responsible person for undertaking these regular monitoring checks will require the relevant expertise and training to do so.

The ‘Water Hygiene Risk Assessment’ will also help to identify what type of water systems there are on the premises. This will then assist in creating an accurate water hygiene monitoring regime and establishing the frequencies of the inspections required.

A typical water hygiene monitoring control regime will include the inspection and monitoring of all hot and cold water systems, including temperature monitoring, hot water storage calorifier inspections, cold water storage tank inspections, de-scaling & cleaning of showerheads, water softener servicing & disinfections, TMV inspections, expansion vessel flushing, infrequently used outlet flushing, combination heater & cold water header tank inspections & point of use water heater inspections.

Additional monitoring tasks can also be added to the regime to include, laboratory sampling and testing, closed system analysis & cold water storage tank deep cleaning & disinfections A site-specific water hygiene log book should also be implemented to enable the records of the Legionella control monitoring tasks to be stored.

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