Atlanta, Georgia: ASHRAE has announced the release of a new toolkit, ‘Developing a Water Management Program to Reduce Legionella Growth and Spread in Buildings: A Practical Guide to Implementing Industry Standards,’ developed by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

ASHRAE claimed that the new toolkit has been developed based on the guidance from ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 188-2015, Legionellosis: Risk Management for Building Water Systems. The toolkit, ASHRAE informed, provides a checklist to help identify if a water management program is needed, examples to help identify where legionella could grow and spread in a building and ways to reduce risk of contamination.

The toolkit, ASHRAE said, was announced via the CDC’s Vital Signs, a monthly update from CDC that focuses on topics of public health interest, and added that this is the first time legionella has been highlighted in the report.

“ASHRAE is pleased to have worked with the CDC to help safeguard public health,” said David Underwood, ASHRAE President. “While Legionnaire’s Disease has been known for many years, recent outbreaks have increased awareness of the disease, its causes and prevention strategies. We saw the need for this shortly after the standard was published, when an outbreak in New York City left at least 12 dead and 120 infected.  At that time, portions of the standard were adopted by the city,” he added.

Citing the case of water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and the deaths there from Legionnaire’s Disease, Underwood said that great care must be given to the entire building water system.

Tom Frieden, CDC Director, said: “Many of the Legionnaire’s disease outbreaks in the United States over the past 15 years could have been prevented. Better water system management is the best way to reduce illness and save lives and today’s report promotes tools to make that happen.”

An earlier version of the toolkit, ASHRAE revealed, was developed by the CDC, the state of Michigan and Genesee County to encourage at-risk building owners in Flint to design and implement Standard 188 compliant water management plans.

ASHRAE informed that Standard 188 can be previewed for free at https://www.ashrae.org/Standard188 and the toolkit can be accessed at www.cdc.gov/legionella.