Legionella
E-news -- 27 March 2002
**IN
THIS ISSUE**
1. Legionella Preventive Measures for New Home Construction
2. E-news Archives Updated
3. Legionella Prevention Training Course
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1. Legionella Preventive Measures for New Home Construction
Excerpted
and adapted from Home Plumbing Systems: How to Reduce Your Risk of
Legionnaires' Disease and Other Bacterial Infections (http://hcinfo.com/312info.htm),
by Matthew R. Freije)
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When building a new home, consider a plumbing system that recirculates
hot water continuously. Tiefenbrunner's group (Tiefenbrunner, F., A.
Arnold, P. Dierich, and K, Emde. "Occurrence and Distribution of
Legionella pneumophila in Water Systems of Central European Private
Homes." In: Barbaree, J. M., R. F. Breiman, and A. P. DuFour, eds.
Legionella: Current Status and Emerging Perspectives. Washington, D.C.:
American Society for Microbiology, 1993; 235-238) found that homes with
hot water recirculation systems were less susceptible to legionellae
growth than were homes without them. The installer must extend the
recirculation line to the point farthest from the water heater.
You
should also flush new plumbing with chlorine. Your plumbing contractor
can put a chlorine tablet in every length of pipe before installation.
These tablets are available from plumbing supply stores.
This
is also the best time to consider installing an ultraviolet (UV)
treatment system, particularly if immunocompromised persons reside in
the house. The unit should be installed on the incoming water line to
treat all water used in the house (i.e., rather than treating only the
kitchen faucet).
An
ultraviolet unit effectively kills legionellae in the water that flows
through it. UV units are
not effective for large building plumbing systems already contaminated
with legionellae; by the time the legionellae-free water leaving the
unit reaches distant points in the piping system, it will be
recontaminated with legionellae growing in scale and biofilm. However,
UV units may be appropriate for small systems, especially ones that are
essentially free of scale and biofilm (e.g., a new house).
As
for water heaters, gas models have been shown less conducive to
Legionella than electric ones (see "Home Water Heaters,"
Legionella E-news, 2 May 2000, (http://www.hcinfo.com/legionella_enews_000502.htm).
Tankless water heaters may also be a good choice, but there is no data to prove it because
Legionella studies of these units in homes have not been undertaken.
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2. E-NEWS ARCHIVES UPDATED
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To see previous issues of Legionella E-news, go to http://www.hcinfo.com/legionella_enews_archives.htm.
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3. LEGIONELLA PREVENTION TRAINING COURSE
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Chicago
-- May 1-2, 2002 (Wed.-Thurs.), at the Doubletree Hotel O'Hare
Airport-Rosemont.
New
York City – June 5-6, 2002 (Wed.-Thurs.), at the Wyndham Garden Hotel
LaGuardia Airport.
To
register for the seminars, or get more information, visit http://hcinfo.com/legionellaseminar.htm,
telephone 1-800-801-8050 (1-760-494-3063 outside the USA and Canada), or
e-mail hcinfo@hcinfo.com.
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(c)
Copyright 2002, HC Information Resources Inc.
You have permission to send this newsletter to others, post it on your
web site, or include it in listserv posts, under the strict condition
that you include the following notice to properly credit the source:
"Excerpted from Legionella E-news, a free e-newsletter available at
http://hcinfo.com."
THANK
YOU!
Matt
Freije, Editor
HC Information Resources Inc.
Tel: 760-494-3063
Fax: 619-839-3166
hcinfo@hcinfo.com
http://hcinfo.com
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