Legionella and your office, could you have duties you are unaware of?

When we complete risk audits for our clients we often run through legionella requirements and this usually raises an eyebrow with the client wondering how they could be affected by these regulations when all they have are offices or a warehouse.

People often, mistakenly, think that unless you have a major air conditioning system or cooling towers and an industrial process which needs them that you can simply strike legionella off your list of potential risks as something which does not affect you – and that’s wrong.

Legionnaires disease can be a risk in almost any premises and should that premises have a shower (particularly an infrequently used one as most are).

Consider the risks for a moment, legionnaires disease is caused by inhaling legionella bacteria within fine droplets of water, if the water has been lying around at a warm temperature, say 35oC, these bacteria can multiply quickly. Now consider that shower which you have in you basement;

1. Infrequently used – check
2. Warm water enabling bacteria to multiply – check
3. A build up of scale / slime which gives the bacteria something to feed off – check
4. A mechanism to create fine water droplets to enable inhalation of these droplets – check

So now think about these risks again.  Should you be doing something to manage them?  We think you should.

What to do?

Your next steps are simple.

1. Disinfect and remove scale using a descaler (you can swap shower heads or simply leave the head in a bucket of cleaner for a while, monthly is usually fine for most offices and even quarterly might be appropriate depending on the risk assessment;
2. Flush infrequently used outlets such as showers to stop bacteria building up (if you’re flushing it take off the head to ensure droplets aren’t created when doing this);
3. If the shower is infrequently used consider removing it and taking the ‘dead leg’ back as far as is reasonable;
4. Record what you have done on a simply check sheet or integrate this into your other record keeping for cleaning.

Finally, if you have questions call your retained consultant on 01453 800100, we’re here to help and always happy to hear from you.

If you’ve got questions or need support on safety in the industrial, contracting or construction sectors please contact us for sensible and proportionate advice on 01453 800100