Legionella & Legionnaires’ Disease Remediation Without Shutting Down Your Building

Legionella Control Systems offers many ways to mitigate Legionella and prevent Legionnaires’ Disease, but let’s presume that before you ever contacted us, you had the worst-case scenario: your facility has a confirmed case of Legionnaires’ Disease.

There are many questions that will be asked by an expert Legionella remediation company such as Legionella Control Systems in this situation. However, there is one important question that you need to quickly ask yourself: “Can we afford to shut down our facility while we remediate Legionnaires’ Disease and Legionella?”

That question might surprise you. But the danger of Legionnaire’s Disease is real, and many companies will recommend mitigation options that shut down your facility.

Why would the facility need to be shut down? Some Legionella remediation options pose a danger to the inhabitants of the facility or to the systems or processes running in the facility. As examples, consider these two common treatments:

• Superheat (heat and flush) to kill Legionella bacteria: Raising the temperature of the water in a facility has the potential to scald or burn occupants or residents. That’s not the only problem. Other possible negatives include damaging equipment, stressing plumbing, and ruining non-metal portions of the systems including gaskets and o-rings. The other downside: Superheating is not particularly effective and can lead to a rebound in the bacteria that leads to even higher levels of Legionella and other pathogens.
• Hyperchlorination to kill Legionella bacteria: While this chemical approach is distinctly different that superheating, it can have similar effects. Hyperchlorination can injure humans, and it can damage equipment, plumbing and sensitive part of systems such as gaskets, rubber-type components, some PVC elements, and various fittings and joints. The treatment also has the potential to damage and/or plug up bacterial filters (e.g. hospital shower heads), requiring the removal and replacement of those filters. Like superheating, it is not particularly effective for long-term control and can lead to a rebound in the bacteria that leads to even higher levels of Legionella.

If you need your facility to stay open, and you don’t want to damage your plumbing and systems, what should you do? This is where Legionella Control Systems’s independence and expertise shines. We aren’t tied to any particular chemical, equipment or treatment approach, so we have more options than most companies. After evaluation of your facility and situation, we might suggest monochloromines, chlorine, or mixed oxidant at a level that will not require you do shut down the building. Another option is copper-silver ionization (CSI). Yet other options include a mechanical means to mitigate Legionella like filters and or UV.

The benefit of many of these approaches are that they are safer for your occupants and less likely to damage your equipment or systems. Equally as important: you can keep your facility open during the Legionella remediation.

The best time to talk about Legionella and Legionnaires’ Disease is before it becomes a problem. That’s the point of a water management program. But if you do have a case of Legionnaires’ Disease in your facility and you don’t want to shut it down, we recommend that you give us a call at Legionella Control Systems right away. We can help you find the solution that protects your occupants, your equipment and your budget because we are a truly independent Legionella consultant.