As Basel becomes the latest city to experience a major Legionella outbreak,  Greg Rankin, CEO at Hydrosense is warning UK facilities that cooling tower management must be treated as a critical safety issue amid what is becoming a growing public health risk:

Last week Basel became the latest major city to experience a Legionella outbreak linked to cooling towers, with 26 people falling ill and one person dying in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Two wet cooling towers on the roof of a department store headquarters were subsequently identified as the primary suspected source of the outbreak, with a further eight of ten cooling system samples tested shown to exceed the threshold for Legionella.

The outbreak follows a recent Legionnaires’ disease cluster in New York’s Upper East Side, where seven people died and more than 90 were sickened. Authorities subsequently found live Legionella bacteria in samples from 59 cooling towers across 58 buildings.

It also follows last summer’s deadly Harlem outbreak, in which seven people died and more than 100 people fell ill after Legionella, again, was traced to contaminated cooling towers.

In response, one of the UK’s leading Legionella testing experts, Hydrosense is warning that the outbreaks should serve as a wake-up call for UK facilities responsible for managing cooling towers and other complex water systems.

Take a look at any one of the major Legionella outbreaks that have happened over the world over recent years and it’s clear there are usually common denominators. Cooling towers have become contaminated, controls fail or are not rigorous enough, and by the time people start falling ill the opportunity to prevent the outbreak has already been lost.

At the same time, our changing weather patterns and aging infrastructure are adding to the challenge. Put the two together and the reality is that if we do not refocus standards by taking a more proactive, preventative approach to Legionella control, we will continue to see more tragic – and largely unnecessary – outbreaks like these.

Legionnaires’ disease is a potentially fatal lung infection caused by inhaling droplets of water contaminated with Legionella bacteria. The bacteria can be found in a wide range of man-made water systems, including HVAC systems, taps, showers  and cooling towers.

Cooling towers are of particular concern because their warm, recirculating water can provide favourable conditions for bacterial growth, while contaminated water droplets can potentially spread beyond the immediate building by as much as several km.

Despite the risks, Legionella testing still relies heavily on traditional laboratory culture methods, which can take up to 7–10 days to produce results – even though Legionella can double in a day. That delay can create a significant gap between contamination occurring and facilities knowing they need to act.

Hydrosense testing technology was developed to address this gap, providing on-site Legionella results in around 25 minutes and enabling duty holders and water management professionals to identify potential problems much sooner.

This comes as public awareness remains worryingly low with recent Hydrosense research revealing that a staggering 90% of Brits admit they don’t know much, if anything, about Legionella, despite the potentially serious health risks. Of those, almost a third (32%) recognise the name only, while one in ten (10%) say they’ve never even heard of it.

The outbreaks in Basel and New York should be a wake-up call for the UK. These are not isolated incidents – they are warning signs of what can happen when a known risk is not identified and controlled quickly enough.

“We should not be waiting for people to die before asking whether a cooling tower was being monitored properly. Legionella is predictable, preventable and detectable. We have the tools to act. The time for complacency is over.

For information please visit: https://hydrosense-legionella.com/