News reports from Dubai suggest a huge Legionella problem bubbling under the surface. The report suggests up to 80% of water samples may be contaminated with Legionella, usually at high concentrations. Given the environmental conditions and until recently a pretty limited awareness of the problem it is perhaps not surprising.
Of course our reseller in Dubai will be delighted to help with supplying test kits for testing Legionella. As the Palintest distributor for the region Blue Gold are well placed to help with all your water testing needs. If you need specialist advice on water hygeine then independent consultant
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who has experience using our tests will also be able to help.
Everyone knows the smell and the eye irritation associated with chlorinated swimming pools. The chlorine plays a vital role in preventing the spread of infection between bathers, but unfortunately also produces chloramines, the disinfection byproduct with that unpleasant smell and burning eyes. Our parent company, Albagaia, is developing technology which will allow the highly effective chlorine disinfectants to continue being used but without the unwanted by product - that not only will make bathing safer, but will reduce the amount of chlorine wasted in producing this unpleasant chemical.
The technology is still in development, but for those who can not wait there is an alternative: “wild swimming“. Apparently increasing in popularity wild swimming does come with its own hazards, including a much higher risk of drowning or getting into difficulty than in a swimming pool. However if you fancy trying open water swimming in a “controlled” environment then you could pop along to one of the numerous charity events such as this one next weekend.
If you would prefer your local pool simply became a better environment for your leisure time, then why not drop us a note and see how we are getting on with developing a solution.
A swimming pool complex in the West of Scotland has been closed following an increase in cryptosporidiosis cases amongst the population. Whilst not conclusively linked to the “outbreak” it is a significant step to take if there is no association. Presumably the infected people were bathers at the pool. Cryptosporidium is notoriously difficult to treat using traditional chlorine disinfectants, as well as being too difficult to detect in pool water for a reactive approach to be adopted. Pools treated with UV (or similar technologies) will be be less vulnerable to crypo incidents than with chlorine alone.
The UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) was today fined £25,000 for breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act, in an incident which resulted in a spill of E. coli O157. Obviously if any organisation should know how to safely handle and dispose of pathogenic bacteria it is the HPA, and in particular its Collindale Laboratory which is an international centre of excellence on pathogenic organisms. It is surprising and disappointing that the incident was neither avoided nor dealt with more effectively when it happened.
Media reports are obviously capitalising on some of the headline grabbing statistics like “100 million to 1 billion infectious doses of the bug”. Rather irrelevant since only 3 people could have been exposed according to the claims of the prosecution. Moreover, given the fact that none of them developed and infection, despite the widely accepted virulence of the organism, suggests that the “exposure” has potentially been exagerated.
However, whilst obviously any spill of bacteria needs to be avoided where possible and cleaned up effectively when it does happen, some of the claims from the prosecution are quite frankly sensationalist: “1 billion organisms” in 100-200 mL of liquid. 1 billion organisms (or even 10 billion as some reports suggest) is actually a pretty small amount, especially in a contaminated waste bin. The spill was on the floor, and therefore presented no immediate risk to the employees, since infection would typically require ingestion or for example exposure through an open cut. Even without the training they should have had, common sense would suggest that if you are handling ANY sort of waste you follow basic hygiene procedures and wash your hands afterwards.
Quite frankly the slip hazard from the spill, and any broken glass was probably a bigger risk than the bacteria itself. Was it in the public interest to bring a prosecution, which resulted in one public department paying fines and court costs of nearly £50,000. The HPA have already implimented stricter controls to prevent recurrence, so presumably the only people benefiting from this were lawyers. Whilst the lawyers were probably correct in “letting” the HPA plead guilty, given the absence of a risk assessment or training, and failures to maintain equipment - I am amazed that they did not seem to “defend” the severity of the incident (or that the HSE/CPS made claims that they showed a “complete lack of understanding of risk”) when actually the HSE have probably over estimated, or at least exagerated the risk to employees and public.
Like many care homes across the western world the Van Duyn nursing home in Syracuse, NY is experiencing problems with its water quality. Managing Legionella in large buildings, with many outlets is a challenge and it will come as no surprise to people in the industry that this building has a recurring problem. Often when a building becomes collonised with Legionella, it is very difficult to completely erradicate it: if just one organism survives, given the right conditions it can replicate over a period of a few weeks to reach alarming levels. In ideal conditions 1 bacteria can grow to become a decillion (thats 10^33 or a billion trillion trillion) in just 1 week. Even with biocide dosing, temperature control and a clean system that reduces the nutrient supply - its easy to see how a tiny amount of Legionella left behind during disinfection can quickly become a real problem again. Yet it is almost impossible to completely sterilise a complex water system - a legionella bacteria, just a few microns in size can easily be protected within valves, scale or corrosion, biofilm, down dead legs in pipework, or in sediment at the bottom of tanks.
Once Legionella collonizes a water system I am never surprised to find out it has come back, and there is no doubt that this is when Legionella testing is needed or a regular and frequent basis so the owners can respond quickly to the early signs of a problem. What does surprise me, is when building owners and health officials seem complacent about the risks, or the prevalence of Legionella in water systems. Yes Legionella is naturally occurring in the environment but it is not at detectable levels in normal drinking water supplies. The Onondaga County health commissioner is alleged to have said “the bacteria poses no threat in normal concentrations to healthy people”. That is down playing the problem. “Normal concentrations” are not detectable. Detectable concentrations are not normal. At detectable concentrations I don’t think many experts would agree that there is “no threat”, nor would the epidemiologists accept that there is no risk to “healthy people”, although there is clear evidence that the risk of infection in higher in the immune compromised. Issuing bottled water may help alleviate fears (although probably unfounded - as the risk of infection from aspirating whilst drinking is very small) - but doesn’t address water used for bathing, showering etc. Either it is a PR effort or it shows a worrying lack of understanding of the problem. A building associated with Legionnaires’ disease deaths previously should be faster as detecting, quicker at resolving and more effective at the crisis management including the PR side of the problems.
