25 de mar. de 2013

Legionella Seminário Internacional

Dia 16 de Abril será realizado o primeiro Seminário Internacional sobre o tema Legionella no Brasil.
O tema vem nos últimos anos sendo cada vez mais percebido como um grande problema.
No seminário, grande oportunidade de conhecer mais sobre o tema.

13 de mar. de 2013

Seminário Internacional sobre Legionella em São Paulo



Estamos publicando a primeira agenda. Confirmação final até próxima semana.

11 de mar. de 2013

ASHRAE 188 Legionella

A ASHRAE, vem trabalhando a muito tempo com o tema Legionella, devido seu alto risco em Edificações.
No momento, a ASHRAE 188 está em consulta pública nos Estados Unidos em sua fase final.
O Dr McCoy, especialista no tema e um dos principais participantes do comite, estará no Brasil na semana de 15 a 18 de Abril, realizando visitas as autoridades da área da saúde, várias empresas (que adotam o conceito da ASHRAE 188) e fará uma palestra do dia 17/04 em São Paulo.
A SETRI não está medindo esforços para que o mercado brasileiro saiba cada vez mais sobre os efeitos da bactéria Legionella, realizando palestras, participando de congressos e buscando o que existe de mais importante no mercado mundial para que os profissionais no Brasil, possam conhecer e avaliar o quanto a legionella deve ser observada.
No Brasil existe sim a bactéria, a mesma vive na água e se propaga por aerossol e spray (formação de micro partículas de água). Legionella pode provocar doenças respiratórias (Febre Pontiac ou Pneumonia).
Ilustramos abaixo algo que muitos ainda não acreditam.


Alguns locais onde a legionella já provocou graves problemas, sem contar com chuveiros, spa, torres de resfriamento, fontes decorativas, ventiladores com spray de água e demais sistemas que possuam a formação de spray e ou aerossol.

9 de mar. de 2013

Engineers' building code standards target Legionella bacteria - Dr McCoy

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 2013-03-09

March 9--An engineering group that influences building codes nationwide is drafting tough new standards to prevent Legionella, the waterborne bacteria blamed in a deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak in Pittsburgh.

Federal estimates show Legionnaires', a form of pneumonia, kills more than 4,000 people and sickens about 21,000 others each year, three decades after researchers figured out how to control the bacteria in tap water.

The proposed standards would require building operators to verify they are monitoring the Legionella threat in commercial, residential and medical facilities with established risk factors, such as multiple whirlpools and spas. It also outlines methods to prevent the growth of the bacteria. 

  "It's not the science or the engineering lacking here. It's the lack of a management system that can be applied in a practical and defensible way," said William McCoy, Standards Committee chairman at the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers in Atlanta.

McCoy's international committee, part of the 55,000-member engineering society, worked for the past six years to craft the first unified and enforceable domestic rules for Legionella control in the plumbing of large buildings, where the bacteria can fester and grow. The proposed plan could be voted on by the society's board this year.

The International Code Council in Washington generally adopts ASHRAE recommendations in building code guidelines that are used by state and local code enforcement agencies across the country.

Current ICC recommendations do not mention Legionnaires' disease, spokesman Steve Daggers said. The little-known council drew national attention in 2008 for advocating stringent fire sprinkler standards for single-family homes that met with heavy resistance from builders and consumers.

ASHRAE will not perform a cost-benefit analysis for the proposed Legionella standards as that is not part of its process, McCoy said. The ICC has in some instances, such as the residential sprinklers proposal, produced cost estimates.

The Uniform Construction Code Review and Advisory Council that sets Pennsylvania's building codes will next update its standards for 2015, said Lindsay Bracale, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Labor and Industry, which administers those codes. 

  "We believe it would be beneficial to all state health departments ... to have a national standard practice" to contain Legionella, said state Department of Health spokeswoman Holli Senior.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, whose experts have contributed to the draft proposal, will encourage building operators to adopt the Legionella standard, said CDC epidemiologist Lauri Hicks.

"We think it will help facilities identify the different steps they can take to prevent Legionella growth in the environment," said Hicks, who helped investigated the recent Legionnaires' outbreak in the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System.

Legionella-contaminated tap water killed five and sickened as many as 21 veterans in the Oakland and O'Hara VA facilities between January 2011 and November 2012, the CDC found.

A cross-section of industry groups, public health departments and other government agencies created more than a dozen guidelines to contain Legionella over the past three decades.

ASHRAE committee member Janet Stout, a microbiologist who formerly worked for the Pittsburgh VA, said it was "way past time for the United States" to have a single, uniform Legionella standard.

France, England and other industrialized nations have "been far ahead of the United States in having an industry or governmental standard in dealing with Legionella in building water systems," said Stout, now director of the private Special Pathogens Laboratory, Uptown.

McCoy said hundreds of facilities, including hospitals, have begun adopting the proposed standard voluntarily. Health systems, including UPMC and West Penn Allegheny, have said they follow established methods for controlling Legionella bacteria.

obs: Dr McCoy vai estar no Brasil em Abril. Teremos vários encontros técnicos em São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro. Um das atividades será a participação de um seminário Internacional sobre a Norma ASHRAE 188, que está sendo mencionada no artigo. O encontro será dia 17/04, com a presença dos maiores especialista do tema LEGIONELLA no Brasil.