The best known illness is Legionnaires Disease. This is a type of pneumonia that principally affects people that are susceptible due to age, illness, imuno-supression, smoking etc and may be fatal. The bacteria can also cause less serious illnesses which are not fatal or permanently debilitating, but which can affect all people. Leigionella can enter man-made water systems and have no detrimental affect to people working or living in a building. A number of factors need to come together to create the risk of Legionnaires Disease.
Legionella are widespread in natural sources of water.
They may enter man-made systems or water services where they can multiply under certain conditions and if there is a means to create and transmit water droplets, people in the vicinity may be at risk. Most cases and outbreaks have been attributed to water services in buildings, cooling towers and whirlpool spa pools. Symptoms Typical symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pains, difficulty in breathing, cough, diarrhoea, vomiting and mental confusion. Under these Regulations risk assessments and the adoption of appropriate precautions are required to be made. It applies whenever water is stored and used in a way which may create a reasonably foreseeable risk of Legionellosis and in particular to the plant and systems whenever the Health and Safety at Work Etc Act 1974 applies.