Legionella Risk Assessment Gloucestershire
For your business and your wellbeing
Legionella Risk
Assessments
A Legionella risk assessment is the essential first step in protecting people from Legionnaires’ disease, a potentially fatal pneumonia contracted by inhaling contaminated water droplets.
Under the HSE’s Approved Code of Practice L8, every duty holder is legally required to assess and manage the risk of Legionella in their water systems. Concept Environmental carries out thorough, competent Legionella risk assessments that identify the hazards in your system and give you a clear, prioritised action plan to achieve and maintain compliance.
What We Can Do...
Professional Services provided by Concept Environmental Solutions Limited
Legionella Risk Assessments
It is a statutory requirement under the HSE ACoP L8 that every premises should have a legionella risk assessment carried out.
This assessment should identify any such risks and recommend means of reducing,managing or eliminating the risk completely. In addition to this the document will assess current management roles and responsibilities and advise accordingly.
The risk assessment should then be reviewed on a regular basis (usually 2 years) or under specific circumstances. Legionella risk assessments are critical documents and should therefore only be undertaken by suitably trained and experienced staff.
ACoP L8 & HSG274 Compliance
Under the Health & Safety at Work Act and the Approved Code of Practice L8, duty holders have a legal responsibility to assess and control the risk of Legionella. Our assessments are carried out in line with HSG274, so every part of your water system is covered and demonstrably compliant.
The Assessment Process
Each assessment includes a full site survey, a current asset register and schematic drawings, temperature and condition checks, and water sampling where required, all brought together in a clear, prioritised report you can act on.
Reassessment & Review
A risk assessment is a living document. We recommend reviewing it at least every two years, or sooner if your system, building use or occupancy changes, or following a suspected case, and we keep your records ready for HSE audit.
Should a 3rd party such as the HSE ever choose to audit your premises they will want to review the water hygiene/water treatment log book. A well maintained and well organised log book will allow easy and transparent auditing and show that your business is organised and takes health and safety seriously. This will undoubtedly be reflected in any subsequent report based on that audit. As an environmentally friendly company we promote the use of electronic means of record keeping wherever possible which is one of the reasons why we are able to offer electronic log books.
The key benefit of these ‘tools’ is that water hygiene/water treatment control programmes can be remotely audited. For a Manager who is responsible for the maintenance of multiple properties this is particularly beneficial as they have no reason to visit each property to carry out the log book audit and therefore save considerable time and money.
When was your system
last checked & tested?
Let us do your thinking on your behalf...
Everyone loves a ‘lightbulb moment’ and at Concept our aim is to come up with the ideas and the solutions so that our clients can focus on other areas in the knowledge that what we are doing is having a positive effect.
Water Treatment Plant & Mechanical Services
There are numerous reasons for needing to improve water quality be it for healthcare, aesthetics or improved performance of systems. Concept specialise in reverse osmosis, water softening, UV filtration and chemical dosing plants to help you achieve your goals as far as water quality is concerned.
Air Hygiene
The quality of the air we breathe is not always given the attention it deserves. We maintain internal building ventilation, extract & access systems and monitor indoor air quality
Legionella Awareness Training
Our online courses provide RoSPA accredited basic legionella training providing an excellent foundation for controlling legionnaires disease.
Fire Safety
Fire safety should always be at the forefront of anyone responsible for health and safety in the working environment.
Our Accreditation’s and Memberships
We believe in the integrity of standards and rigor of the certification process. That’s why it’s our policy to achieve accreditation for our services wherever possible.
Legionella FAQs
As an employer or a person in control of premises, you must appoint person or persons responsible for helping you manage your health and safety duties, e.g. take responsibility for managing risks. A competent person is someone with the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to manage health and safety, including the control measures. You could appoint one, or a combination of:
- yourself
- one or more workers
- someone from outside your business
If you decide to employ contractors to carry out your risk assessment or other work, it is still the responsibility of the competent person to ensure that the work is carried out to the required standards. Remember, before you employ a contractor, you should be satisfied that they can do the work you want to the standard that you require. There are a number of external schemes to help you with this, eg A Code of Conduct for service providers.
The purpose of carrying out a risk assessment is to identify and assess any risks in your water system. The responsible person should understand your water systems and any associated equipment, in order to conclude whether the system is likely to create a risk from exposure to legionella, and should be able to identify whether:
- water is stored or re-circulated as part of your system
- the water temperature in some or all parts of the system is between 20-45 °C
- there are sources of nutrients such as rust, sludge, scale and organic matters
- conditions are present to encourage bacteria to multiply
- it is possible for water droplets to be produced and, if so, whether they could be dispersed over a wide area, eg showers and aerosols from cooling towers
- it is likely that any of your employees, residents, visitors etc are more susceptible to infection due to age, illness, a weakened immune system etc and whether they could be exposed to any contaminated water droplets
Your risk assessment should include:
- management responsibilities, including the name of competent person and a description of your system;
- potential sources of risk;
- any controls in place to control risks;
- monitoring, inspection and maintenance procedures;
- records of the monitoring results, inspections and checks carried out;
- arrangements to review the risk assessment regularly
If you decide that the risks are insignificant, your assessment is complete. You may not need take any further action at this stage but you should review the assessment regularly in case anything changes in your system.
Tailored solutions for water and air hygiene