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Self Flushing Showers

Showers

Protecting People, Businesses and the Environment

Although cooling towers are often incriminated in large outbreaks of Legionnaires'
disease, it is domestic water services that are linked with the majority of infections.
Inhalation of contaminated aerosols created by underused conventional showers of the
mixer valve type are widely-believed to be the single-largest source of legionella infections.


Nowadays, the risks from this primarily man-made disease implicates a far-wider
perspective, not only is our social responsibility of providing safer and sustainable
environments under scrutiny, the increasing risks from brand impact and the implications
of personal legal liability involving corporate manslaughter charges have emerged
in recent times. As a result there is increasing pressure on Designers, Procurement
teams and Operators of domestic water systems to justify their legionella control strategies and practices, in line with Health and Safety Law and HM Government Design and Procurement Briefings.


The wiser and wider use of advocated legionella controls is essential to reduce the
numbers of infections and fatalities associated with underused conventional showers.
Control strategies are now described in the Approved Code of Practice and Guidance:
Legionnaires' disease (L8). The Code is approved by the Health & Safety Commission.
Aqua Hygiene Products has funded and conducted intensive research to develop an
alternative legionella control strategy for controlling the risks from shower installations;
L8 incorporates the findings of that research by describing the legionella control procedure founded for Safepurge two-pipe showers in paragraph 166.


Public buildings waste billions of litres of water and significant amounts of energy every
year in the UK through out-dated legionella control strategies, which is now avoidable
with alternative strategies described within the Code. This Guide provides a valuable
insight into how control strategies can be considered in line with HM Government
Design and Procurement Briefings; essential to win business for Private Finance Initiatives(PFI/PPP).


Legionellae are intracellular bacteria transmitted through environmental sources, and as such the design and operation of shower facilities should no longer be considered a
simple matter, especially as Legionnaires' disease infections and fatalities are avoidable.
We hope you share our enthusiasm for developing a better understanding of controlling this fascinating genus of micro-organisms cohabiting with other bacteria and protozoa in domestic water systems and join us in promoting the wiser and wider use of advocated legionella controls to protect people, businesses and the environment.

A Reasonably Foreseeable Potential Risk to Health

Conventional Showers

Legionnaires' disease is primarily a man-made disease and infections caused by the
built-environmemt are avoidable. However, infections and fatalities continue to be
regularly reported by the media as compromises in legionella control often occur. The majority of cases are associated with domestic water systems.


Conventional showers are often promoted with healthy life style images, however, it is well documented that these devices when under used present a reasonably foreseeable potential risk to health; often providing the implicated source of legionella infections and resulting fatalities, especially those installed in large commercial buildings.


Following Legionnaires' disease outbreaks, press releases have referred to cases
attributed to an extremely rare and unusual set of circumstances. However, the risks from legionella proliferation in underused conventional single-pipe shower installations of the mixer valve type are well-documented, and for over twenty years. In the intervening periods between use, conventional showers have been shown to provide ideal conditions for legionella proliferation, which include:

A plentiful supply of nutrients found in biofilms (a thin slime like film with entrained debris) lining the internal aspects of pipework and fittings Showers produce large numbers of aerosols (fine mists of water droplets) which carry legionellae to susceptible hosts and when inhaled the potentially fatal Legionnaires' disease infection route is complete; it would be prudent to consider ways of reducing the reasonably foreseeable potential risks to health from these devices.

Alternative legionella control strategies for underused showers are described in L8.

The advocated legionella control procedure for underused conventional showers is described in L8, paragraph 165: a regular weekly flushing and recording procedure, however, this may be difficult to carry out and subsequent lapses in flushing have been associated with fatalities and infections.

The environmental implications of this procedure also fall under increasing scrutiny as regular flushing relies on the planned wastage of significant amounts of power and water, which has become unacceptable to many institutions, especially as it is easilyavoided with modern alternatives.

The control procedure described for conventional showers, a regular flushing and recording procedure (paragraph 165), may be difficult to implement and subsequent lapses in flushing have been shown to be the cause of infections and fatalities.


L8 also refers to an alternative legionella control strategy which should always be
considered where flushing and recording is, or is expected to be, difficult to carry out described in paragraph 166 (developed for Safepurge showers).


Aqua Hygiene Products demonstrates a total commitment to health & safety zero tolerance; pioneering successful world class research and development for an alternative and dependable method of controlling legionella from shower facilities: Independent scientific trials conducted by published scientists from a leading UK University Teaching Hospital Safepurge legionella control procedure announced at the International Symposiaon legionella, Edinburgh 1998.


Safepurge technology described in L8, paragraph 166, 2001 Safepurge provides automatic and dependable legionella control for showers;avoids subsequent manual flushing lapses Safepurge avoids the need for designated Flushers and hence avoids any personal health risks associated with the regular flushing task.

For more information see attached document or go to Safe Purge