I work in the UK for a water hygiene company as an operative. Our Legionella control contracts include various buildings such as schools, offices, homes for the elderly, community spaces etc. I have long been skeptical of the effectiveness and necessity of some of the standard UK control methods (using ACOP L8 guidelines) and also the levels of risk we are led to believe exist. Finding your website has certainly been a revelation. Are you aware of UK Legionella control regulations i.e., health and safety at work act, and ACOP L8, and what would be your opinion/critique of these?
We are aware that the UK guidelines are not evidence-based. For example, they have taken our findings on temperature settings for water distribution systems and have incorrectly extrapolated them to recommendations to maintain hot water temperatures at certain levels – this recommendation is unjustified and has proven ineffective. They also use quantitative cultures cfu/ml as criteria for risk; this measurement has proven inaccurate. They also emphasize stagnation and recommend removal of dead legs; this recommendation is logistically-tedious and has not proven to be effective.
Could you send us the ACOP L8 Guidelines? We plan to review non-scientifically-based recommendations on www.legionella.org later this year.