When considering your options for Legionella compliance, growth prevention or remediation water treatment, there are several factors to consider.
Unless you are in remediation mode, a long term “systemic” type facility potable water treatment technology solution should be evaluated and installed. These Legionella water treatment technologies are engineered to lower the potentially fatal Legionella exposure risks to facility occupants.
With ASHARE 188, larger facilities will be advised to implement a preventative type of secondary water treatment technology. The same applies to the summer 2017 Legionella directive issued by the CMS (USA).
Legionella Water Treatment
Yet what if you require a short-term solution to deal with existing Legionella issues in your facility potable water distribution network? What should you do to fix this quickly in anticipation of a long-term solution?
Copper silver ionization technology uses the latest in engineering to eliminate Legionella at the source. Legionnaires’ Disease can be deadly, so it’s crucial to have your water system treated. With over 20 years of experience, we can assist you with every step of your project. Here are some key Legionella water treatment methods, along with their advantages and limitations, for you to evaluate.
Short-Term Legionella Water Treatment
A short-term Legionella remediation technique is implemented to eliminate Legionella from the facility’s potable water distribution network. There are two commonly known techniques to accomplish this:
- Thermal Eradication
- Hyper Chlorination
Thermal Eradication and Hyper-Chlorination are short-term Legionella growth remediation methods. They provide a three to six-week window before one will start to see Legionella CFU counts rise again unless a long-term solution is implemented.
The realities associated with these two methods include the risk of severe scalding, strong chlorine smell, pipe corrosion, physical damage to the plumbing. Distal outlets require water flushing, and facility occupants run the dangers of chemical exposure or scalding.
Short-term secondary potable water treatment remediation normally protects facility occupants from public health Legionella exposure for a few weeks. This time of period, usually ranging from 3 to 6 weeks, offers facility management personnel the opportunity to implement a long-term Legionella growth prevention strategy such as CSIDefender(R) copper-silver ionization.
Long-Term & Systemic Legionella Water Treatment
Installing a long-term method of water treatment is the ideal way to prevent Legionella growth within a facility’s potable water distribution network.
Long-term Legionella growth prevention water treatment solutions include:
- Chlorine Dioxide (ClO2)
- Chloramines (NH2Cl)
- Copper Silver Ionization – CSI (Cu2+Ag+)
For Chloramines (NH2Cl), healthcare facilities should be aware that Chloramines affect dialysis equipment and can cause anemia in patient care. It is generated on-site by combining chlorine and ammonia, which is a chemical more stable in water compared to Chlorine or Chlorine dioxide. Yet, because of this, it’s much less effective at controlling Legionella. Chloramines are 200 times less effective than chlorine in killing e-Coli bacteria.
Chlorine dioxide (ClO2) is considered to be less corrosive compared to regular chlorine and has also shown to deliver better performance than Chlorine or Thermal eradication. Chlorine dioxide can take up to 17 months to deliver measurable results for Legionella growth control. Another drawback of Chlorine dioxide is that it must be generated on-site. It also requires a relatively larger technology footprint compared to other technologies such as copper-silver ionization. In many locations, Chlorine dioxide may require that on-site personnel be certified to operate the technology.
Copper Silver Ionization Water Treatment
Copper Silver Ionization (CSI) is arguably the most reliable, easy to use, and affordable Legionella growth control technology for facility potable water distribution networks. The technology is simple to install in new or existing facilities.
CSI technology does require monthly cleaning maintenance of the ionization chamber cells, and like other technologies, the consumables deplete and are replaced when needed. There are only a few copper-silver ionization manufacturers who can provide commercial size units for facility potable water treatment.
CSI technology is recognized by the CDC, EPA, and WHO. No harmful by-products, and it’s discreet to use and implement.
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