ALS Environmental are delighted to announce that we have been awarded the H&V News Combating Legionella Supplier of the Year 2016 award for our developments with MALDI-ToF confirmations. This is the first year that Combating Legionella has held an awards ceremony and the ALS team are delighted to have been successful! The award was presented to the team by Julie Spinks of WRAS. The Combating Legionella event took place at Villa Park on Thursday 22^nd and Friday 23^rd September 2016 and ALS were present at the conference exhibition as one of the co-sponsors.

JANUARY 2017 UPDATE - DOWNLOAD HSG 282 here.....

Upon announcing the decision at the awards ceremony the panel noted that the work undertaken by ALS to continually develop the MALDI-ToF database and acquire both UKAS and DWTS accreditation for the technique made the nomination stand out from the crowd. The database used by ALS to confirm Legionella now has over 50 different species with numerous different strains of each to help our customers in detecting Legionella and help protect the public. The MALDI-ToF technique allows customers to receive and benefit from instant and informative confirmations of Legionella and other bacteria covering both Genus and Species levels data.

Click here for a full list of Legionella species ALS can identify

Upon receiving the Supplier of the Year award, ALS Environmental's Sales & Marketing Manager Nick Barsby comments:

This award is a testament to the hard work put in by our technical team in developing the MALDI-ToF confirmation approach. We must take time to thank our colleagues who were involved in first developing the technique as well as those who are working to continually develop our range of bacteria including Sam Dearlove, Simon Benton and Pervinder Johal.

ALS Environmental have been using the MALDI-ToF confirmation technique since acquiring UKAS ISO17025 accreditation in January 2014, closely followed by DWTS accreditation in February of that year. The team have worked hard to continually develop the database to include:

• ESKAPE Pathogens
• Stentrophomonas
• Enterococci
• Listeria
• Additional Legionella species

The technical development work by the team now also allows ALS to offer a range of Air Monitoring using the MALDI-ToF approach. This enables ALS to offer a breadth of Indoor Air Quality and Bioaerosols monitoring for a range of bacteria and pathogens, including Yeasts and Moulds, with instant and informative analytical data.

The Combating Legionella event was full of interesting discussions and interactive debate. Hot topics included the developing Spa Pools guidance which will be under HSG 282 and the subject of WaterSAFE certification for plumbers to help alleviate Legionella risks. The evening awards saw a large discussion form of the benefits of MALDI-ToF confirmations and how ALS have helped form the new industry standard for microbiological confirmations.

JANUARY 2017 UPDATE - DOWNLOAD HSG 282 here.....

For more information on our Legionella testing services, including PCR and MALDI-ToF confirmations or our upcoming events, please contact us or call your Customer Service Co-ordinator on 02476 42 12 13.