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Legionella

Course Overview

Cases of Legionnaires’ disease, caused by legionella bacteria, are fortunately rare. However, when they occur, they can be fatal to vulnerable people and expensive to organisations and to individual managers.

To meet your obligations under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations (2002), the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999) and the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) you need to have assessed the risk from your water systems, including hot and cold water, evaporative cooling and other plant such as vehicle washers and irrigation equipment. You need to have a written scheme which describes what competent people are doing to manage the risks. Even if someone is tasked with simply running the taps once a week, they should understand why this could be a vital part of keeping people safe.

This course outlines typical water management tasks, and helps employees understand why each task is important. As well as looking at what happens when organisations do not safely manage their water systems, employees will be shown how the jobs they have been asked to do will break the chain of events that can lead to a death from Legionnaires’ disease.

Course Objectives

In this training course employees will learn:

  • About the conditions which encourage legionella bacteria growth and its impact on human health
  • About different types of water systems and typical water management tasks
  • About the importance of recording water management tasks in a site diary
  • When to seek advice

Benefits to your organisation

  • Reduce risks from water systems by making sure employees understand the importance of water management tasks and their role in controlling legionella bacteria
  • Improve your ability to defend yourself in the event of an outbreak by explaining to employees the necessity for following a written scheme and accurately documenting water management tasks
  • Provides records of training and testing of knowledge as part of your legal duty to provide employees with suitable and sufficient information, instruction, and training

Target Audience

Any employees required to carry out water management tasks

Duration

45 minutes