Kia Ora all

I am trying to find, with not much success, information on the likliehood (or otherwise) of legionella exposure when servicing fire sprinkler systems.

My limited knowledge suggetss that this is a likely risk, but our fire engineers "have never heard of such a thing"".

I would be obliged if anyone can point me in the direction of any research material/resources which I can review.

Many thanks

Gary

Yes, a recent HSE document (http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/meetings/hseboard/2013/300113/pjanb1309.pdf) mentions that fire sprinkler systems have the potential to create a risk from Legionella. A Fire Industry Association guidance document I came across (Guidance on Legionella in Fire Fighting Systems and Equipment FIA Guidance for the Fire Protection Industry) contains some good general guidance in relation to sprinkler systems and may provide you Gary with some information on what you are looking at currently. There is also some further information out there in relation to fire sprinkler systems and Legionella, but effectively they all say the same thing in that the risk of exposure and contracting Legionella (once risk assessed and the necessary control measures undertaken) is realitively low. Of course it will vary from system to system, but hopefully the above information will help you in what you are looking at.

Ubiquitous bacteria, stagnant water, plenty of nutrients, variable temperatures that all add up to ideal breeding conditions.

But, is anyone aware of any reports of infection from sprinkler systems?

Stevie have you never heard of a sprinkler head being damaged by maintenance man?

I have.

Further - sprinkler systems are being installed into private residential houses now, I wonder if this increases the risk to householders who may decide to DIY sprinkler maintenance themselves ?

I find it interesting to see an innocent question that seems so simple at the start develop into a much broader area of discussion.

It just shown the power of this forum in educating the users.

Oh, and yes, dust suppression systems sitting around unused in warm conditions would potentially be a pretty good breeding ground and a weapon of mass transmission!

Gary, mention of a hospital triggered a memory of hearing about a legionella outbreak at a hospital traced back to the discharge of a fire hosereel through an upper floor window creating a mist that entered an open ward window and eventually led to a fatal outcome for a frail patient.

I have no further details but should be relatively easy to track down on t'internet.

Indeed. I work with street/utility workers and their training/awareness/toolboxtalk includes guidance on use of water for Stihl Saw dust suppression. They have large 25L bottles of water on the back of their trucks, not used every day, which could breed legionella.

Suppressing dust on Stihl saws is necessary because of cement dust. When using them the operator is bent over the cutting area. The water suppression creates a mist of water. Another good reason to wear RPE and they are advised to change the water in the bottles every day.

JohnW

Yes I was implying there that the saw users always wear rpe (FFP3) for the dust, and that another good reason is to avoid inhaling the water mist.


John

Hmmmm water suppression is an effort to avoid creating dust in the first place, RPE is worn in case harmful silica particles are airborne.

Do you suggest members of the public should be wearing RPE as well as the operatives?

some systems are like those in the movies were they have a hammer system so if one head activates all the others in the area smash as well or you can manually activate all the heads by pressing a button

also there are flood systems which have no alcohol heads you turn a tap manually again spraying the whole area

then there are pressurised bag and ballon etc

Physo - What is a pressurised bag and balloon in terms of a suppression system???


As for avoiding Legionella, we have an extensive pre-action water mist system, which as it is normally dry, get's around much of the preventative maintenance re waterbourne nasties

The same can be said for our boreholes which supply the water mist system and the building's grey water supplies, as that takes a lot of looking after.

Pressurised Bag and balloon is a system that is usally used offshore in shipping
what you have is a pressurised bag or balloon which puts a presure on the fresh water up to the spray head the ballon is in a cylinder which contains fresh water

once the the head ruptures this back pressure from the balloon then runs the system until the fire main is run up to provide the secondary water supply,

which on a ship is usally salt water also the time for the firemain to activate may be 20-30 seconds , the initial fresh water also prevents corrosion in the pipes as the salt water back up usally causes the pipework to rot also the salt deposites can cause the heads to block up so the sprays do not activate so efficiently

a use for a hammer system would be in an area you may decide to flood, Due to a risk of explosion
so if you have an area on a ship for example and there is a fire in the same room or adjacent and what ever is in that room is over heating you hit manual which makes all the heads activate at once to flood the compartment or if you are carring cargo which is highly explosive you set to automatic so all the heads activate at the same time, a drop in pressure causes the hammer to smash all the other heads or if you have mixed low leval cargo you just set the system to normal use and single heads to activate

maintenance for the above
Daily check for leaks and the pressure at ballon , cylinder is at the required bar leval
Weekly, Release pressure in main line to check that alarms go off
Monthly Top up as required
6 monthly full drain of system,

Flood systems used on Paratecnic lockers were the distress flares can get so hot they can melt through a deck, Lockers flooded for cooling down , usally sighted high up on a ship so loads of decks to mealt through

smoke lockers no floods at all as smoke flaires are usally salt/water activated, again high up on ship away from doors so activation does not go into ship

then there is the totally specialised systems of

Bromochlorodifluoromethane still legal on some ships were the pipework has a back up of CO2 and a third back up of Salt Water used in main machinery spaces etc etc

Then Novac systems etc

Hope this helps

Yup, read that.