Legionella Risk Assessment

Feedwater specialises in providing a clear and concise legionella risk assessment service for all manner of industrial and commercial client as well as the provision of services to prevent Legionnaires’ Disease outbreaks and to help you comply with ACOP L8.

Why and where is a Risk Assessment for Legionella needed?

The ACOP L8 regulations(*) indicate that a suitable and sufficient risk assessment is the first step in Legionnaires' Disease prevention. The objective is to identify all water systems where legionella bacteria could potentially grow and assess the risk of people being exposed to contaminated aerosols from them. All water systems need to be included in the legionella risk assessment, but particular attention needs to be paid to:

• Hot & cold water systems
• Cooling water systems, cooling towers and evaporative condensers
• Spa pools
• Spray humidifiers, misters, air washers and wet scrubbers
• Safety showers, sprinklers, vehicle wash systems
• Fountains and water features
• Any other system containing water in which Legionella could grow and be released in aerosol droplets

Who needs an ACOP L8 Legionella Risk Assessment and can I do it myself?

The ACOP L8 regulations say that if you are an employer, or control premises or water systems in connection with work, then you need to carry out a legionnaires risk assessment of each of your water systems. The assessment must be carried out by trained personnel who are competent to do so. Despite what some people might tell you, you can do it yourself, provided you know what you are doing and, if you are responsible for a number of simple water systems, this may be a cost-effective approach. Feedwater can provide bespoke training and document systems to enable you to do your own risk assessment for legionella and develop you own legionella disease control measures.

Obviously, if your water systems are more complex, we would recommend that you get expert help and Feedwater can carry out a comprehensive risk assessment for legionella on your behalf.

How often do I need to do a Risk Assessment for Legionella?

The guidance to the ACOP L8 regulations says that the legionnaires risk assessment should be reviewed at least every 2 years and whenever there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid, such as if you have added to, or modified, your water systems, or if the use of the water system has changed, or if your legionella control measures are no longer working. For a simple system, the risk assessment review may be fairly straight forward, but for more complex systems it may be best to carry out a full legionnaires risk assessment from scratch.

What else do I need to do?

As we said earlier, legionella L8 risk assessments are only the first step in legionnaires disease prevention. In addition the statutory duty holder also has to:

• Prepare a scheme for preventing or controlling the risk
• Implement and manage precautions
• Keep records of precautions implemented
• Appoint a person to be managerially responsible

All this can be a bit daunting, so Feedwater has developed a comprehensive range of products and services to help you in all aspects of legionnaires disease prevention and aspects of legionella L8 compliance.

Why use the Feedwater Legionella Risk Assessment Service?

Unlike many other ACOP L8 legionella risk assessment providers, we believe that a risk assessment report should be simple and to the point. There is no value in an unnecessarily long and wordy document, so your Feedwater risk assessment report will be comprehensive yet concise, focussing on what you need to know. It can be used as an effective management tool to reduce risk and monitor improvement.

Our risk assessment system complies with the requirements of the recently introduced British Standard BS 8580 “Water quality - Guide to risk assessments for Legionella Control.”

Our risk assessors are highly experienced and use a unique risk matrix scoring system to help identify those factors which increase risk, so you can see at a glance where you need to prioritise your remedial actions and what you have to do to comply with the regulations.

Legionella Control Services

As well as legionnaires risk assessments, we provide a comprehensive range of legionella control services:

• HSE ACOP L8 Compliance Services
• Water Hygiene Services
• Legionella Testing Service
• Laboratory Water Testing
• Legionella Awareness Training
• Legionella Risk Assessment Training
• Disinfection and Cleaning services
• Cooling Water Treatment
• Cooling Tower Foam Cleaning
• Legionella Control with Chlorine Dioxide

NB: We are the only UK water treatment company that have their own in-house UKAS accredited legionella testing laboratory, which means we are uniquely placed to help you.

Are you worried? Is your water system contaminated with Legionella right now? Find out in less than 24 hours using FASTEST™, our rapid legionella testing service.

Useful Legionella L8 Links

* ACOP L8 - The UK Health and Safety Executive's document "Legionnaires' Disease: The Control of Legionella Bacteria in Water Systems - Approved Code of Practice and Guidance (L8)"
- Download your own FREE web-friendly copy (0.5Mb)

Link to the latest World news on legionnaires’ disease

Link to the latest UK news on legionnaires’ disease

Link to the HSE website section for Legionnaires Disease.

Link to see the latest prosecutions.

Link to the Legionella Risk Control Association

Here to Help you

If you can't find what you're looking for, please do not hesitate to