The Water Drop™: Episode 13

Legionella Hot Spots

The cases of Legionnaires' disease where they are the most dense is in the Northeast and the East Coast. There's a couple different reasons for that. The first is the age of the infrastructure. That is where America settled. That is where we first started our country. And so, we have a lot of history. We've been living there for a long time.

Old infrastructure leads to more of a risk of Legionella. You have corrosion in the pipes. I don't know if you've ever seen a picture of a water main, but if you ever see a cross section of it, there's a ton of growth and corrosion. These things are old, man. They have been around for hundreds of years. It's really hard to replace a water main. And especially in the Northeast, if you think of Plymouth Rock and where we landed, we came in Plymouth Rock. We've been living in that part of the country for hundreds of years. Naturally, that infrastructure is older and leads to more of a risk of bacterial growth and waterborne pathogen growth. Organizations and regulators have done a really good job of knowing that there is a risk of this out there and implementing different standards. So, in New York you have Local Law 77, which really deals with cooling towers. They also have regulations for testing your water system in a healthcare facility.

There are things that are being put in place to help protect those populations. A lot of the building owners are educating themselves. They're working with consultants like IWC in order to reduce that risk to their building occupants.

Reduce the Risk of Legionnaires' Disease in your Facility