Legionella Prevention: Redundant Systems Recommended

When Madrid based dealer ECTE approached ECOsmarte corporate in Minneapolis

, MN in 2003 about seeking European Union certification on its ionization electronics for the prevention of Legionella, ECOsmarte CEO Larry Couture was initially excited.

When I found out we had to prove ourselves at two grocery store sites where death had occurred due to produce sampling, I discouraged the dealer. The main at risk facilities globally are hotels, hospitals and grocery stores.

The Ministry of Health in Madrid required weekly water tests to confirm zero microbe present and this protocol was designed prior to US health experts at John Hopkins University recommended ionization as the best method as part of a redundant approach to prevention of Legionella in 2004.

This is a very difficult arena, about the same month John Hopkins published the study recommending ionization we had a death in a Minneapolis hospital where the patient drank from the cold water tap in the bathroom despite signs posted warning against it, continued Couture.

Couture said ECOsmarte contacted the hospitals facility personal the day after the news event to offer free equipment and was rebuffed. We had a similar response around 9/11/2001 when a motel in southwestern Minnesota had a multiple person event, he added.

Couture said eventually those companies that already service the properties at risk will need to install and recommend ionization equipment Risk Managers have probably told personnel the liability increases to the extent they chose not to purchase preventative equipment, according to both plant Superintendents and Risk Managers.

Current Methods, as cited by the Hopkins study, involve response to the microbe such as super chlorination and super heating the water after a Legionella event and do little to prevent occurrence. The 2004 Hopkins white paper recommended chlorine in the source water and a residual ionization in place.

Legionella is an airborne microbe and forms biofilms functionally immune to chlorine at levels tolerable to humans. Couture said after 15 years conventional commercial and industrial water companies have finally started reselling ECOsmarte equipment and expects to add sites in early 2010.

ECOsmarte received the first Certificate of Efficacy for the prevention of Legionella by device from the Ministry of Health (Madrid) for the European Union in 2004, administered by Alchem Testing Laboratories.

by: Mike Dewar

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