Victorian Legionella Increase and New Cooling Tower Laws
Advisory Note
June, 2010
An increase in Legionnaires' disease cases in Victoria including a number of deaths has prompted the Department of Health to issue a warning to cooling tower system owners and operators.
Legionnaires' disease is a sometimes fatal form of pneumonia contracted by inhaling very fine droplets of water containing Legionella bacteria, such as those emitted by infected cooling towers.
In Victoria, there have been 40 reported cases of Legionnaires' disease for the first half of the year compared with 23 at the same time last year. Three quarters of these cases have been linked to cooling tower systems carrying the bacteria.
To address the increase, the Department of Health recently contacted all cooling tower operators reminding them of their responsibilities under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008.The Department has requested businesses review the maintenance of their cooling tower systems and urged them to ensure that they have an up to date Risk Management Plan (RMP) and water treatment program in place.
New Victorian Cooling Tower Regulations
New Regulations for cooling towers came into place on 1 January 2010 with the introduction of the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008. The requirement to register cooling tower systems as well as prepare and annually audit a RMP remains under the new Act and there are a number of important changes to owner’s obligations including:
- Registration of cooling tower system will be conducted by the Department of Health rather than the Building Commission;
- Penalties for failure to register a cooling tower system have increased significantly;
- Registration periods can now be up to 3 years;
- RMP’s must include steps that are being taken to comply with maintenance and testing requirements (including remedial action following an adverse test result);
- The Heterotrophic Colony Count (HCC) trigger level for action has been increased to 200,000 CFU/mL and there is now an alternative process which may be followed when a high HCC result is obtained;
- There is a new mandatory requirement for a Legionella test every three months as a minimum;
- RMP’s are required to confirm that cooling towers and the sampling point of each cooling tower system have been labelled with the CTS registration number (CTS ID).
It is important that Cooling Tower System RMP’s be updated to ensure they comply with the new Regulations. Additional information must be integrated into the current RMP to avoid problems with the annual audit.
Occupational Health and Safety
In accordance with the Workplace Health and Safety Act 2004 employers must provide a safe and healthy workplace for their workers and contractors. It is important that cooling tower installations are safe for building personnel and maintenance contractors. These requirements should also be addressed in the RMP.
More information
For more information on the new Legislation or Regulations visit the Victorian Health Department website:
http://www.health.vic.gov.au/environment/legionella/
index.htm
For further information on workplace safety visit the Worksafe Victoria website:
www.worksafe.vic.gov.au
For assistance in updating Risk Management Plans or guidance on cooling tower operation and maintenance contact your A.G. Coombs Contract Manager or:
Bryon Price, A.G. Coombs Advisory
bprice@agcoombs.com.au or telephone 03 9248 2700
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this publication A. G. Coombs assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions or for any consequences of reliance on this publication.