The law is clear that if you are a Landlord, Freeholder or Block Manager you will need to ensure that the properties you manage are safe and free from health hazards (HSE)
Duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HASWA) extend to risks from Legionella bacteria and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) provide a framework of actions designed to assess, prevent or control the risk from bacteria like Legionella
For practical guidance on how to manage and control the risks in water systems, we suggest reviewing this document initially “Approved Code of Practice (ACOP): Legionnaires’ disease: The control of Legionella bacteria in water systems”
Legionella bacteria thrives if:
6. As a Block Manager, or someone in control of the premises (i.e. Landlord or Freeholder), you are responsible for Health and Safety and therefore need to take steps to reduce the risks of Legionella. These steps are;
This is 1st step to managing the risk of Legionella. It is a legal requirement to assess the potential risk of Legionella exposure in a property or block, and also to control this risk
This is achieved through a Legionella Risk Assessment, which must be conducted by a competent person, who has sufficient knowledge and experience in order to complete this assessment correctly and thoroughly
Once the risk of Legionella in the property has been identified and assessed, the next step is to begin the process of managing that risk
The Health & Safety Executives ACOP L8 requires that the Duty Holder appoint a Legionella ‘Responsible Person’ to take day-to-day responsibility for controlling Legionella bacteria and Legionnaires’ disease
This means any action points from a risk assessment as assessed and resolved, ensuring appropriate contractors are appointed to maintain the system and completing routine monitoring of the system as necessary
The spread of Legionnaire’s disease is very much preventable and the best way to do this is reduce the amount of stored water
The HSE describe a typical ‘low risk’ example as a small domestic-type water system, where daily water usage is sufficient to turn over the entire system; where cold water is directly from a mains supply (therefore no storage cold water tank) and where hot water is fed from instantaneous heaters, such as a combination gas fired boiler. However in many blocks there are large cold water tanks that collect the main fed water and then pump it up to individual apartments when required, these are water tanks must therefore be carefully monitored and maintained. One easy way to monitor these tanks is completing a routine temperature test to ensure the water temperature does not go above 20 degrees
Indeed, the best approach to prevent the risk is by eliminating the conditions that allow Legionella bacteria to grow and disperse, therefore for example, this means removing any identified “dead legs” where water can stagnate
The final important step to complete is ensuring along with a risk assessment, records of routine monitoring and appropriate testing are maintained to illustrate evidence of the actions taken to eliminate or reduce the risk
A logbook similar to the type used for routine fire alarm testing, is a good method of capturing this testing information
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