Managing legionella across Newham and the five Olympic boroughs

Whilst Aqua Legion UK focus on creating the most effective water treatment and legionella risk management services throughout the Southeast of England,  we specialise in super fast response times to cover all of London’s boroughs and the surrounding counties including Essex, Kent, Croydon, Bromley, Enfield and Surrey.

We have also recently set up a new office in the Olympic borough of Newham, situated local to Stratford and Forest Gate to ensure we are able to service the five Olympic boroughs most effectively.

With so much change and redevelopment in the Olympic boroughs we aim to raise the profile of water hygiene, water treatment and legionella risk management in Newham and the other four Olympic boroughs including Greenwich, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest.

We feel that with so many people coming to the area during the Olympics, it will be extremely important that our local hotels, B&B’s and rented accommodations get their water systems up to standard with regards to legionella control.

It is important that the UK and London create a positive lasting legacy following the Olympics. To do this we need to exercise a level of due care and diligence before, during and after the games.

Legionella is something that is easily managed in most buildings. However, if ignored and infections were to occur it,  it could easily damage the legacy of our games. We therefore think that it will be extremely important that the Olympic village, parks, pools and surrounding hotels,  and B&B accommodation especially manage their water systems effectively prior to the games, during the games and after the games.

The Olympic village will also be of particular concern since it may be occupied by high profile Athletes and potentially susceptible individuals during the para-olympics especially.

There is a vast amount of construction works going on in the area including offices, shopping centres, Stratford international station and other public, community and business premises and facilities where legionella infections could occur.  As a result we believe it is impotant to highlight the risk of legionella infection from the offset so effective management can be put in place as required by Law.

If you have a business operating in any of the Olympic boroughs or plan to offer rental accommodation or public facilities including bars, clubs, restaurants, hotels and B&Bs etc and want to know how to make sure your Organisation is legally covered with regards to legionella please contact us.

The BBC ran a report on BBC 1 London Breakfast this morning about legionnaires disease in potting compost. The risk of legionnaires diseases is real and can be fatal.

However, when you ask most people if they know what legionnaires disease is the answer is no. This lack of awareness leads to sporadic infections on an annual basis throughout the country. Unfortunately these sporadic infections rarely get reported.

Legionnaires disease only tends to capture the limelight or reach the press when a large outbreak occurs and a number of people are infected or die.

Unknown to most people, the risk of infection can be found from a range of water sources including water or moisture in potting composts. It is not actually the compost that causes legionella, it is the moisture trapped within the soil or compost where the legionella bacteria live and grow.

If the bacteria enters the moisture in the soil or compost it will grow rapidly if conditions are right. When the compost or soil is worked the trapped moisture can be released via a vapour which is then inhaled. Inhaling the moisture or vapour released from the compost when worked during potting or gardening can lead to infection and ultimately legionnaires disease which can be fatal.

However, it is also important to highlight that  legionnaires diseases can also be contracted from a simple domestic water system at home or at work.  If a domestic water system is poorly managed, maintained or seldom used and the bacteria enters the system then it will grow and could lead to the potentially fatal infection.

Contact us for more information or advice.

How many more people have to die before we start taking the risk of legionella infection seriously.

Kent and the Kent area is now under investigation by the HPA to locate the source of the legionella infections and a number of Organisation will be exposed over the next few months for not having risk assessments or having inadequate control measures in place to reduce the risks.

Don’t be the next Statistic ! Carry out your legionella risk assessment and implement proper control measures to reduce control and manage the risks. Contact us now – www.aqualegion.com for a professional and competent service.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning companies responsible for carrying out legionella Risk Assessments of the need to ensure that their work is thorough and accurate.

The warning follows conviction of a Berkshire-based water treatment company for carrying out inadequate and misleading surveys at nursing homes. As a result, vulnerable residents at the homes would have been at a heightened risk of contracting legionnaires disease, a potentially fatal form of pneumonia.

They were fined £24,000 and ordered to pay costs of £17,276.

The company were commissioned to carry out legionella risk assessments at Nursing Homes operated by Craegmoor Healthcare in Tredegar and Llangattock.

A subsequent routine check of the nursing homes revealed there to be inadequate controls for legionella at these premises, and the focus moved on to the work carried out by The Water Treatment Company.

“Elderly nursing home residents are at greater risk from the bacteria so it is imperative that safety critical surveys are adequate.

“Fortunately, there was no evidence of any outbreak of the disease, but there is a clear responsibility to those companies carrying out specialist work that they need to carry out adequate surveys and provide accurate information and Legionella risk assessments are no different.”

It is important to ensure the Organisation you use to carryout your survey’s are registrered with the Legionella Control Association. If the Organisation is not registered with the Legionella Control Associaton you could be putting yourself and staff at uneccassry risks, and you may end up with a substandard risk assessment or poor quility service.

CHICAGO – A Chicago Train Authority (CTA) employee has died from complications of Legionnaires’ Disease after working with another CTA electrician on a train washing machine, according to CBS2.

The Aug. 11 story said the worker contracted the disease two weeks ago. He had been working on a train washing equipment when a blast of stagnant water struck him in the nose, mouth and face. The next day he became very ill with an extremely high fever.

The Legionella bacteria occurs naturally in the environment but can increase with warm re-circulating water, such as cooling towers. Symptoms include headaches, fever, chills, coughs and muscle aches and pains.

According to CTA officials, no other employees have shown signs of Legionnaires’ Disease, and, spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney said, “There is no evidence that the illness was contracted at CTA.” However, the CTA said it alerted 800 workers of the potential for contracting the disease and has shut down the train washing machine and similar devices.

Afterward, employees received another letter saying “while there was nothing to indicate that the disease was contracted at a CTA location and, in fact, the Dept. of Health said that the CTA did not need to take any action, the CTA decided to proactively hire an outside environmental firm to test and clean the equipment in question,” Gaffney said.

Five Legionnaires cases confirmed

Five cases of Legionnaires’ disease have been confirmed in Kent, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) has said.

The HPA was already investigating three cases, two of which had links with the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford, and two more were reported on Wednesday.

Kevin Carroll, 50, died after being admitted to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital with the Legionella infection.

The HPA said it was trying to identify the source of each case and there was no evidence that they were linked.

One of the two people most recently confirmed to be infected with the condition was an inpatient at the William Harvey Hospital. The other person had no link to any hospital.

Two of the people currently being treated at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford are said to be in a serious condition.

Dr Mathi Chandrakumar, director of the Health Protection Unit, said: “We are working closely with our partners in the NHS to try and identify the source of these infections.

“This will include investigating all places each person visited in the two weeks before they fell ill.

“At present there is no evidence that the cases are linked.”

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Trust said showers, baths and water births had been suspended at the William Harvey Hospital and engineers had flushed the water system through as a further precaution.

Mr Carroll, from Dover, who died after being infected with the Legionnaires’ was described as being a keen scooter enthusiast and a “great guy”.

Members of the Dover Saints Scooter Club said his family were keen for him to have “scooter send-off”.

The bacterium Legionella pneumophilia causes the disease, which is normally transmitted through inhaling water vapour containing the bacteria.

Bottled mineral water has confirmed to be a casualty of the credit crunch with a fall of 9% in the British Market this year.

The 6th annual H&V News ‘ Combating Legionella’ Conference 2009 is packed with essential updates and new information.

This is a must attend event!

The annual conference is to be held on Thursday 17th September 2009, Hilton London Kensington, W11 where some of the indsutries leading experts will be speaking from the HSE, HPA, Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Universtity Hospital. Mr David Harper and Simon French will also offer talks and a training workshop.

If you would like to obtain information on how to reduce the risk of legionella, avoid litigation, judge whether your risk assessments are up to scratch or just evaluation different methods of control this is a conference not to be missed.

The conference is aimed at: Local authorities, Healthcare providers, Facilities Management companies and Public building Estate Managers, Health and Safety Officers, Facilities Managers etc.

Visit www.combatinglegionella.co.uk for more information. We hope to see you there!

The Richard Dimbleby Lecture.  Facing the Future by the Prince of Wales.

The Prince of Wales gave a lecture on sustainability, our environment and the Future. Having established Aqua Legion UK from an Environmental Science background, we believe that Prince Charles said all of the right things. He clearly understands the importance of our environment  on our own long term existence and measures needed to try and ensure a degree of longevity. Focusing on sustainability and local environmental enrichment through the creation of diversity and local supply chains and initiatives is something we have been going on about for many years now too.  Watch the video and leave your comments here. Is this sincere environmental campaigning or opportunistic PR? We would suggest that it doesnt really matter. For us, we appreciate the focus on altering the approach in the way we do things to achieve greater environmental harmony between the built environment and the natural world. To us, what really matters is establishing a healthy respect for our planet as a complete ecosystem of perfectly balanced symbiotic relationships both in the natural and built environments and it is through this healthy respect for our planet that we will ensure that nature will take care of itself.

To view the video of the lecture, click on the link below or copy into your browser.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00lncxc/Richard_Dimbleby_Lecture_Facing_the_Future

Aqua Legion UK Ltd welcome you to our brand new website where you will find plenty of information about what we do, and how we operate here at Aqua Legion, plus a wealth of knowledge and useful information is available on water hygiene, legionella and occupational health and safety.

We hope you enjoy the site and benefit from all the new features we have added.

Pixel Air !  Aironautically Fantastic!!

A very, very special thank you to our fantastic web design company Pixel Air Ltd, and in particular web designer Alex Peterson, Alex not only designed this great e-commerce site but has also offered so much more supportive advice and expertise. From creating our online newsletter, client portal, to search engine optimisation Alex, at Pixel Air, has far exceeding our inital requirements to produce a website we are truely proud of.  Again Thanks to Pixel Air,  www.pixel-air.co.uk