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.

Cogent, the sector skills council for scientific industry are holding a Water Treatment Industry open meeting at:
Holiday Inn, East Kilbride on the 21st and 22nd July 2010.
The meeting is your opportunity to have a direct input to the National Vocational Qualification for Water Treatment currently being developed by Cogent in partnership with a steering group of industry representatives. For more information or to sign up for the event email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Cruise ships are an ideal breeding ground for all sorts of infections: they have a large number of people in a very enclosed space which means that with diseases that are passed from person to person outbeaks spread quickly. These problems can be compounded by poor water quality or even direct contamination of the water supply itself. The potential consequences are highlighted in this story at the BBC

Behind Legionella, Norovirus (or Norwalk virus) is the microbial infection we are asked most about detecting in relation to cruise ships. Viruses are generally very difficult to detect in the environment though, and so its not currently part of our development plans. We are of course interested in talking to people with the need for detecting such viruses or methods of detecting them that might be suitable for use in the field.

It has been quiet on the newswires for a while with not much to report on Legionella outbreaks. There are, as always, other water borne pathogens causing concern around the world but again nothing which seems to actually be causing significant new disease outbreaks right now. It is likely that Legionella news will not break through the media frenzy drummed up by the Swine Flu story, and so Legionella will remain off the global radar for a few more weeks.

Pressures to reduce water consumption for economic and ecological reasons are encouraging both new building designers and existing facilities managers to install grey water systems for applications which don’t need potable quality - such as flushing of toilets. In most systems rain water is collected from the roof, although more extreme approaches exist. It is important to recognize that rain water collection systems are not treated and so will almost certainly contain bacteria and must not be allowed to mix with domestic hot and cold water systems. Assuming that the water systems are properly segregated and potable quality is not required this can be a very effective mechanism for reducing water consumption in the cold water system - however there is a downside: since toilet flushing is typically one of the major water uses in buildings such as offices, the reduction in water consumption can lead to water sitting stagnant in tanks and pipework for much longer - with the resulting opportunity for bacteria growth. We recently heard on one of our customers who was removing their grey water system after low water throughput was thought to have contributed to Legionella proliferation.