Although temperature control has been the UK’s longest-serving means of controlling the growth and proliferation of Legionella in hot and cold water systems, there are other factors, including major rises in energy costs, that warrant the use of biocides – including in the healthcare sector.
In 2000, the HSE’s new ‘L8’ guidelines took this into account, giving equal weight to both temperature regimes and biocides, such as chlorine dioxide, as control methods. Susan Pearson BSc reports on one potentially effective biocide – silver hydrogen peroxide, explains how it ‘works’ in practice, and highlights the recent ‘real-world’ evidence of its effectiveness and advantages.
The HSE has now acknowledged an alternative chemical biocide, silver hydrogen peroxide (SHP), including it for the first time in the latest 2014 HSG2741 guidelines, which supersede L8.
In reality, SHPs have been used in the UK since 2002, and are now widely utilised as a domestic water disinfection treatment. SHP has largely replaced sodium hypochlorite as a disinfectant for one-off domestic water system disinfection, and is widely used as a continuous dose chemical. In practice, however, SHPs have not always been well received by the various authorities responsible for water regulations and guidelines in the UK. Despite known case histories, some of which are outlined below, there is little published independent peer review data available on SHP as a biocide in water.
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