The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have released the final version of the Health and Safety Guidance (HSG) 274 for the control of Legionella under the Approved Code of Practice for Legionella (ACoP L8).

ALS Environmental are one of the UKs leading laboratory suppliers of Legionella analysis; we hold Legionella Control Association Membership and our technical management team are members of the Water Management Society. We hold UKAS ISO/ IEC 17025:2005 and Drinking Water Testing Specification (DWTS) accreditation for all of our Drinking Water Microbiology analytical parameters.

HSG 274 Part 2 deals with "The control of Legionella bacteria in hot and cold water systems" and is issued following significant consultation with the industry. The control of Legionella is covered in the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) 1974, Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002 and is also covered in the Health Technical Memorandum (HTM) 04-01 for NHS units.

Pervinder Johal, ALS Environmentals Microbiology Manager comments:

"The finalisation of HSG 274 Part 2 is the final piece in the puzzle from the HSE following all of the updates to ACoP L8 over the past 6 months. We at ALS Environmental have kept our customers up-to-date with these developments and encouraged you all to comment on the revisions."

The HSG 274 guidance gives practical advice on the legal requirements of the HSWA 1974, the COSHH Regulations 2002 concerning the risk from exposure to legionella and guidance on compliance with the relevant parts of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. The HSG 274 guidance is split into 3 sections:

1. The control of Legionella bacteria in evaporative cooling systems
2. The control of Legionella bacteria in hot and cold water systems
3. The control of Legionella bacteria in other risk systems

A hard copy of HSG 274 will be published in 2014 and available to purchase from the HSE website in due course.

ALS Environmental have a dedicated Legionella laboratory in Coventry which is able to process over 20,000 Legionella samples per month and has a similar capacity for associated bacteriological parameters including:

• Coliforms
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa
• Enterococci
• Pseudomonas Species
• Clostridium perfringens
• E-coli
• Total Viable Counts

For more information please view our Legionella brochure. If you would like to discuss our Legionella and Microbiology analytical services then please contact us or call 02476 421 213.