‘Outstanding disinfection without toxic chemicals’

Whether inhaled in the tiny aerosolised drops of water from a rarely used hosepipe or a badly maintained hot tub, or even an air-handling system that vents onto the street – as occurred during one of the UK’s worst outbreaks in Barrow-inFurness in Cumbria in 2002 – Legionella ‘horror stories’ still appear in the press with unsettling regularity. One of the biggest stories to be reported recently dealt with the £300,000 fine imposed on Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust for failing to control the risk to patients from exposure to Legionella bacteria in its water system following the death of a cancer patient. The incident highlights the huge responsibility that hospitals have when it comes to maintaining a safe water system, and the moral, legal, and financial implications if they fail. 

In this article, I will take a broad look at the ways that hospitals and the government address the issue of Legionella, and explore what I believe to be the most effective system for controlling Legionella in water systems – a system that steps away from traditional treatments, and takes a holistic approach to the business in hand. It provides a solution that helps hospitals to comply with the guidelines of HTM 04-01 without using or producing toxic chemicals that, ironically, could do as much damage to people and the planet as the bacteria they were brought in to destroy – all at a fraction of the price that hospitals are used to paying. 

Legionella pneumophila and Pseudomonas aeruginosa