MedicineEng
Industrial
- Jun 30, 2003
- 609
Hi All:
In a property close to ours there was recently a confirmed Legionellosis case.
Further analysis to the water systems on that property cleared it as the Legionella source.
Either way, given the local media exposure, this triggered a full bezerk mode in our top management and they requested a full review of our own Legionella control procedures and to check for potential gaps.
After the internal audit, things looked pretty good on our side and the control mechanisms that we have in place are fairly robust.
Nevertheless, during the course of the audit, one of our engineers gave the suggestion to make combine samples of several locations, run lab tests on those and only if it came back positive, drill down on the actual location. This would allow a significative expansion on Legionella lab samples without blowing through the budget.
For instance, instead of testing just a few HVAC condensate drain pans or humidifiers, take a combined sample of several (say 10 AHUs) and lab test it. If it comes down positive, then repeat individual tests for the AHUs to find out which one(s) is(are) contaminated.
I confess that I never heard of this approach and in my search through international standards regarding Legionella control (UK, US and others) I couldn't find any reference to it, so I'm a little bit lost on this one. It's an interesting idea especially in a property like ours where water lab tests run close to 100kUSD/year and Legionella has a huge influence on this tab.
Does anybody have experience with this approach or any thoughts on this?
In a property close to ours there was recently a confirmed Legionellosis case.
Further analysis to the water systems on that property cleared it as the Legionella source.
Either way, given the local media exposure, this triggered a full bezerk mode in our top management and they requested a full review of our own Legionella control procedures and to check for potential gaps.
After the internal audit, things looked pretty good on our side and the control mechanisms that we have in place are fairly robust.
Nevertheless, during the course of the audit, one of our engineers gave the suggestion to make combine samples of several locations, run lab tests on those and only if it came back positive, drill down on the actual location. This would allow a significative expansion on Legionella lab samples without blowing through the budget.
For instance, instead of testing just a few HVAC condensate drain pans or humidifiers, take a combined sample of several (say 10 AHUs) and lab test it. If it comes down positive, then repeat individual tests for the AHUs to find out which one(s) is(are) contaminated.
I confess that I never heard of this approach and in my search through international standards regarding Legionella control (UK, US and others) I couldn't find any reference to it, so I'm a little bit lost on this one. It's an interesting idea especially in a property like ours where water lab tests run close to 100kUSD/year and Legionella has a huge influence on this tab.
Does anybody have experience with this approach or any thoughts on this?
