For businesses across the country, health and safety should be the first thing on the checklist when you start employing people. There are some standard health and safety things that will always get attention first. Things like fire safety, first aid and risk assessments. And some would say rightly so. But there are other things that are less commonly thought of that still need your attention. Here, we’re talking about legionella testing for businesses. We get a lot of questions about the legalities of legionella testing and when it needs to be done. So this tells us two things: businesses are unaware of their responsibilities to legionella test, and some businesses aren’t doing it. What these folks need to know is how this can impact their business. Let’s dive in.
Legionella and the Law
Legionella can impact any business or organisation with a water supply. To help understand the dangers of legionnaires, a risk assessment must be conducted for every organisation, regardless of what you do. While there are environments that legionella can thrive in more than others – a little more on that later – all commercial properties should be aware of the risks.
There are two laws that are important when you’re trying to understand your responsibilities for legionella. The Health and Safety at Work regulations, and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH).
The Health and Safety at Work regulations state that you must ensure the health and wellbeing of employees to the best of your ability. This of course includes legionella bacteria, something that is avoidable in waterworks as long as you take the right precautions.
COSHH is more directly aimed at things like legionella because they’re focused on hazardous substances. For example, water with the legionella bacteria in it is considered a substance hazardous to health. COSHH regulations state that risk assessments should take place to help minimize risk to people’s health.
How Legionella Can Impact Your Business
Without legionella testing for businesses you could fall foul to big problems. There are three main ways legionella can impact your business. These are:
Serious/fatal sickness to staff or yourself
Legionnaires disease is a form of pneumonia that can leave those that contract it very ill. It is a bacterium that is contracted from water, often left stagnant. That’s why you need a risk assessment and testing.
Heavy fines
As you’ll see a little further down the blog, legionella in your water can result in heavy fines, and no industry is exempt.
Business closure
If this becomes a persistent problem, then your business may need to close for good. But even after one case, your business will likely need to close. Take this example in Blackburn, where a swimming baths was forced to close after detection of legionella in hot and cold running water.
Reputation
When businesses are closed because their health and safety isn’t up to scratch, word gets out. The reputation of your business can make or break your success. Harming staff or customers with legionnaires disease could put a final nail in the coffin of your business.
Is Legionnaires’ Disease Fatal?
Yes, legionnaires disease can be fatal. It is a pneumonia-type disease that attacks people’s lungs, and comes from bacteria that is in soil and water. While legionnaire’s disease doesn’t always kill, there are multiple examples, some below, of people being close to death with legionella. This is one of the big risks that you take by not addressing the risks associated with legionella.
Legionella and Fines – Don’t Leave it to Chance
Riaar Plastics Limited – £50,000 + costs
In 2020 a company in West Bromwich was charged when five members of the public became ill from legionella bacteria in the waterworks of one of their water towers. This cost them £61,000 in total. A fair chunk of change.
Security firm G4S had to pay a whopping £1.8 million plus £31,000 in costs when Harlow council found the firm were severely under assessing the risk associated with legionella and their workplace, making a worker sick in the process. Investigation deemed their lack of effective risk assessing to be a large part of the problem.
Tendring Council – £27,000 + costs
Not even local councils and authorities are exempt from the law. This shows here, as Tendring Council was found to have left a man “fighting for his life” because of the water in a local health and fitness suite in 2018. These types of venues are some most at risk of letting legionella bacteria rip through them. It’s best to get risk assessed before you cause someone serious harm.
How Direct365 Can Help
Here at Direct365, we’re experts when it comes to small and medium businesses. Our work has spanned decades, and covers a vast array of services – including legionella testing for businesses. For a thorough, expert assessment and testing of your water, fill out our form below.