SmartBlog – Why Legionella Risk Assess

Legionella Risk Assessment

Risk assess
Remedial works
Advice to tenant
12 months later – Repeat

Legionella was discovered after an outbreak in 1976 among people who went to a Philadelphia convention of the American Legion. Those who were affected suffered from a type of pneumonia (lung infection) that eventually became known as Legionnaires’ disease.

In this hot weather with temperatures soaring to an all time high, its creating the ideal environment for the legionella bacteria to colonise in places that may not be flushed through properly before use, a hose laying across a lawn with water residue that is then subjected to the heat of the sun and then the cooler temperature of night, left for lying outside unwound with residual water in the length of its tube and then in a playful moment taken up and that dormant water spray unwittingly into the face, without first allowing the water to run through. Legionella occurs in naturally in water, exposed to certain conditions it can become a danger to vulnerable persons, who upon inhaling affected spray could contract a flu like pneumonia illness. Risks are reduced by assessing, acting on identified issues, remedying and informing tenants to maintain processes to reduce/avoid the risk, in most domestic situations removing nutrients such as mould or limescale that would allow the bacteria to proliferate, setting hot water to a temperature hot enough to kill but safe enough not to scald and informing tenants of their continued actions during the tenancy.
Legionella Risk Assessing – The Legal Basis
The need for a legionella risk assessment is not new, it was always a duty under Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA) “It shall be the duty of every self-employed person to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that he and other persons (not being his employees) who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.”

Landlords, under Section 53 of HSWA are regarded as being self-employed and tenants fall into the class of “other persons” (not being his employees), to whom landlords have a duty of care. The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) provides a framework of actions to control the risk from a range of hazardous substances, including biological agents (eg Legionella) – to identify and assess the risk, and implement any necessary measures to control any risk – remedial action following a risk assessment and informing occupiers of their day-to-day duties in keeping the risk of contracting legionnaires disease to a minimum.

The code of conduct recommends:
~ a property assessment
~ testing of temperature for hot and cold water at all taps
~ check for dead legs (redundant runs of pipe work)
~ check of little used outlets like: hot tubs, outside wcs, outside taps and hoses etc
~ include: cold water storage tank, outside tap, hoses
~ recommendations to landlord and informative advice to tenants
~ remedial works
~ landlord to repeat annually, retain records

It doesn’t require qualification to do the check, most landlords are competent to carry out the risk assessment, it does require an understanding of the heating and hot water being assessed, which might be very different from one property to another and knowledge of the scenarios in which legionella could present an issue. The reason landlords use Creative Green Energy is to:

• overcome the need to upskill,
• avoid the need to calibrate equipment that they use fairly infrequently,
• provide impartiality.

Call Creative Green Energy to book your risk assessment
07538 840 396
sales@creativegreenenergy.com