COVID-19 focus on building health & safety gives new relevance to Rotronic White Paper on Legionella contamination monitoring solutions

The COVID-19 pandemic with viral transmission primarily by aerosol droplets (as well as contaminated surfaces) has focused new attention on building safety and heating, ventilation and air conditioning HVAC systems.

The phenomenon of ‘sick buildings’ first came  to the world’s attention In 1976 when almost 200 of the 4,000 American Legion war veterans attending a convention at a Philadelphia hotel were struck down by a new form of pneumonia, from which 29 of them died.

Aerosol contamination

The subsequent intensive public health investigation identified the cause as “Legionnaires’ disease”,  scientifically known as legionella or legionellosis (Legionella pneumophila), a lethal bacterial pathogen that breeds in tepid water.

Like COVID-19, legionella is primarily spready by aerosol contamination around a building but is distinctive in that the main culprits are water systems, including showers, aerator tap outlets, whirlpool spas, cooling towers and air conditioning systems with mechanical air humidification.

Legionella risks 

Rotronic, the world-leading manufacturer of measurement and monitoring equipment, has produced a White Paper Legionella – An Ever-Present Bacterial Threat that explains and quantifies the risks of legionella contamination, It also outlines solutions to monitor essential building systems to reduce contamination risks.

The White Paper explains what legionella are and the dangers they pose, before examining overall strategies for reducing the risks of building contamination as well as decontamination approaches based on chemical disinfection or UV irradiation.

Rotronic solutions

It concludes by outlining Rotronic solutions that allow legionella threats to be reduced, most particularly by monitoring water and pipe temperatures.

These solutions are based on the Rotronic Monitoring System (RMS) and the RMS gateway that provides an interface between monitoring software and multiple probes. RMS is also useful in other health and safety applications in monitoring air temperatures, humidity and CO₂ concentrations.

Rotronic also offers an all-in-one kit solution for Legionnaires’ disease designed to help establishments monitor their water distribution systems to prevent contamination.

The Rotronic kit includes all components needed to monitor temperature at key points in a water distribution system, including hardware and software.

Resources

Click on Legionella Monitoring Starter Kit from Rotronic for product information.
Click on Rotronic Products for more information on Rotronic measurement solutions.