Tony Berry of St Johns Approved Premise probation and bail hostel recently approached H2O Chemicals as he was concerned that his site was not complying with current legislation. ACoP L8, as is the norm in H&S management, requires Risk Assessment of water systems and since none had been carried out this was the first step recommended. On assessing the Legionella risk, a number of problems with the water systems were identified that rendered the property as high risk.
In one loft, we found a Calorifier venting back into a dirty, contaminated tank, causing the tank temperature to rise to 40 ºC. This presented Legionella with the optimum conditions for growth. Even more alarmingly the tank went on to feed showers which presented the potential for any Legionella to become airborne. This greatly increases the chance of someone catching Legionnaires disease. We cleaned and chlorinated the tank and had the venting pipe from the Calorifier moved into the F+E tank. This ensured that the tank temperature remained below 20ºC, reducing the possibility of Legionella growth.
In the other loft, a series of eleven linked cold water storage tanks were found. Some of the tanks were seriously stagnated as there was no cross flow through the tanks. The capacity was greatly over-estimated, which resulted in the water sitting for long periods. H2O Chemicals replaced the eleven tanks with two slightly bigger tanks which increased the cross-flow of water. By reducing the capacity, the problem of stagnation was solved.
St Johns Approved Premise are a shining example to others, they have assessed their risk and acted promptly upon the risk assessment to re-gain control of their site. They have taken a firm stance in the fight against Legionella and have now signed up to a monitoring program with H2O Chemicals to keep control in the future. As the H2O brochure proclaims - Control is the key.
