Legionnaires’ disease is a severe type of pneumonia. It comes from bad bacteria contracted by inhaling contaminated water vapor, affecting people with a compromised immune system (like the elderly). It’s caused most commonly by aerobic bacteria that are carried by amoeba that thrive in stagnant water. The bacteria, Legionella, has been found in everything from air conditioners to ice making machines.
Legionnaires is often spread via community building water supplies — like misters, humidifiers, evaporative coolers and cooling towers — and breweries are not immune. A few years ago, we wrote about Warsteiner, Germany’s largest privately-owned brewery, battling concerns over Legionella bacteria found in its wastewater.
Aquatherm, a manufacturer of polypropylene pipe or PP-R pipe for the brewing industry and way beyond, released a video on preventing Legionnaires’ disease by controlling the growth of Legionella bacteria in water systems. The best means of controlling Legionnaires’ disease is by eradicating Legionella from a building’s water supply. From the press release:
In this Tech TV video, Jim Paschal, P.E., Chief Technology Officer, Aquatherm North America, evaluates the pros and cons of various chemical and non-chemical Legionella control strategies, including hyper chlorination, chlorine dioxide, monochloramine, copper-silver ion generation, heat, and ultraviolet light.
The Legionella video is the sixth in the series of Aquatherm Tech TV videos. Other topics have been mixed systems, temperature, pressure, flow rate, and support considerations. All Tech TV videos can be found here: https://aquatherm.com/video-library. All of the videos in the series are free and available 24/7.
According to the video, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there’s probably between 8,000 to 18,000 cases of Legionnaires’ disease each year. Now you know.
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