The best way to prevent Legionnaires’ disease? You need to assess those risks with a risk assessment!
A legionella risk assessment is essential as it’s designed to highlight areas of concern in your water system, showing where remedial work is necessary to halt the spread of harmful bacteria.
But who is the right person to complete a legionella risk assessment?
In this article, we look at who should be the one to carry out a legionella risk assessment for your water system and why.
The truth is that yes, technically anyone can complete a legionella risk assessment, but don’t dust off your chemistry set just yet!
Just because you can complete your own risk assessment, doesn’t necessarily mean that you should.
Here’s why.
You wouldn’t ask a mate who ‘sort of’ knows about cars to change your brakes, so why would you ask someone relatively unfamiliar with your water system to carry out a legionella risk assessment?
If they’re not adequately trained, they might make mistakes. Believe us when we say: in the world of water hygiene, mistakes can have disastrous (and deadly) consequences.
Consequences such as:
Simply put, you can’t subcontract the risk.
Even if you delegate the task to someone else, the responsibility lies with the owner of the business or building. This means that, if the worst should occur and someone gets seriously ill due to an inadequate assessment, the legal consequences will land on you.
That’s why it’s in your best interest to leave the task to the experts.
While it is possible to send someone from your task force to go on a training course and learn all there is to know about risk assessments, the course itself is expensive and it means that you would remain liable for any mistakes should they get the assessment wrong in the future.
In comparison, to have a trained professional carry out the test is significantly more cost-effective, and they would shoulder the liability and risk.
A trained professional will carry out hundreds of risk assessments a year, and with that much experience and expertise, you know your water system(s) are in safe hands.
A legionella risk assessment isn’t something you can ignore until it goes away. If you have a water system on your premises, you are legally required to carry out regular risk assessments to remain HSE compliant.
But if any old Joe Bloggs can’t do it, who can?
Not to toot our own horn, but the best person for legionella risk assessments is a trained professional from the H2O Hygiene team, and we’ve got no shortage of those!
At H2O Hygiene, we understand that water hygiene, especially conducting a legionella risk assessment is stressful AND dangerous if you get it wrong, which is an awful combination.
Luckily for you, it’s our passion to take the hassle and stress from you, providing the highest quality water hygiene solutions available – there’s a reason our clients stick with us!
If you have any further questions or want to arrange to have one of our specialist consultants visit your site to conduct a risk assessment, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team today, we’re here to help!
