Legionnaires’ disease and purified drinking water

17/09/2015 Sidrah Ahmad

Throughout our blog we’ve posted about the importance of purifying your drinking water before it hits your glass in order to remove impurities that may be lurking in your water. And recent news reports continue to remind us how important filtering your water really is.

Recent news stories have reported that Legionnaires’ outbreaks has taken the lives of nine in Illinois, 12 in New York with another 176 confirmed cases in just those two states.

Although the New York case was caused by breathing in water particles from cooling towers that contained the Legionella bacteria, this bacteria can also live in drinking water and the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs has not yet concluded how the outbreak happened. As of Wednesday, September 9th, the department planned to disinfect water systems at the veterans home with chlorine after previously cleaning its hot water tanks and air conditioning.

system and shutting down decorative and drinking water fountains and other potential sources of aerosolized water. Residents at the facility continue to rely on bottled water and sponge baths as a precaution.

The Center for Disease Control says that 8,000 to 18,000 people are hospitalized in the U.S. every year with Legionnaires' disease.

Recent U.S. Outbreaks

• As of Tuesday, Wednesday September 9, 2015, the Illinois Department of Public Health reports 53 cases of Legionnaires' Disease at Illinois Veteran's Home - Quincy; nine individuals have died.

• The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, along with the Marin County Public Health Department report they are continuing the investigation of the source of Legionnaires’ disease at San Quentin State Prison. As of August 30, 2015 there were six confirmed cases and 51 inmates under observation for respiratory illness.

• ABC News reports that the worse ever outbreak of Legionnaires' disease had occurred this summer with at least 101 infected and 10 dead.

Protect your drinking water

The key to protect yourself is keeping Legionella out of your drinking water supply with the right purifying system that will do the work for you at the point of dispense.

Water coolers and water distribution networks provide a breeding ground for Legionella which can also grow symbiotically with the aquatic bacteria attached to the surface of biofilms. These biofilms provide the bacteria with nutrients for growth and also offer protection from adverse environmental conditions (including during water disinfection). The concentration of Legionella in biofilms depends upon water temperature; at higher temperatures, they can more effectively compete with other bacteria. Because biofilms colonize drinking water distribution systems, they provide a habitat suitable for Legionella growth in potable water, which can lead to human exposure.

Here, at Waterlogic we have the purifying systems that have been tried and tested. We’ve developed Firewall UV sanitization and have proved beyond a doubt its effectiveness against a range of bacteria and viruses. We recently had our Firewall systems tested to the strict requirements of the World Health Organization (WHO) for Water Treatment Technologies.

The Waterlogic Firewall is the only drinking water UV purification system that has met the strict international requirements of WHO (World Health Organization) for Water Treatment Technologies.

We are proud to say that our Firewall technology achieved the highest marks with 99.9999% reduction in bacteria and 99.999% in viruses. An excellent result was also achieved for Protozoa with a 99.9% reduction. Overall Firewall achieved an outstanding Tier 2 status for comprehensive protection from the three main classes of pathogens. This is an exceptional result unmatched by other products.

While you can’t protect all sources of water, you can protect your drinking water, especially from the place where you consume a lot of it – your workplace.

The Firewall system is highly effective at making your drinking water safe. This WHO certification brings another outstanding seal of approval, with Waterlogic meeting WHO’s strict International standard for water quality and purification.

• Please visit the WHO website for more information on WHO certification.
• View this and other Waterlogic's certifications
• View the complete range of Firewall bottleless water coolers