The Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA) are a UK based Consultancy, Instrumentation, Research and Testing organisation providing specialist services in building services engineering and construction. Earlier this month BSRIA published a free "at a glance" Topic Guide review of Legionella.

The Topic Guide (TG08/2015 - At A Glance - Legionella) provides a wealth of information on:

• How the disease is spread
• Who is at risk
• Incidences of outbreak
• How to control the risk

The guide makes full reference to ACoP L8, HSG274 Parts 1, 2 & 3, British Standards 8580 and CIBSE TM13; provides key points to help comply with regulatory requirements and offers advice on non-regulatory resources to help stakeholders understand their obligations.

Click here to view the latest BSRIA Topic Guides

ALS Environmental are able to support customers who require Legionella analysis by offering both PCR and culture analysis. The BSRIA guidance does not make reference to the PCR approach for Legionella; but it can provide early notification of contamination in under 24 hours, all data is reported in Genomic Units (GU) as opposed to Colony Forming Units (CFU).

Commenting on the "At A Glance" guide issued by BSRIA, Pervinder Johal, ALS Environmental's Operations Manager for Microbiology, states:

The Topic Guide for Legionella, issued by BSRIA,  provides an excellent summary of the history, risks and regulations surrounding the bacteria. The inclusion of action levels for Domestic Systems will help benefit a wide audience."

ALS can further help customers with the analysis of Legionella by utilising the MALDI-ToF confirmation technique which can provide additional Legionella species information and removes the requirements for presumptive reporting. This means that ALS can offer a full Legionella speciation in 10 days as opposed to the standard agglutination approach which takes an additional two days and does not provide any speciation of Legionella species.

Click here to view the BSRIA At A Glance Topic Guide to Legionella

To discuss your analytical requirements, including, MALDI-ToF confirmations and Legionella analysis, or for any other queries please liaise with your Customer Service Co-ordinator or contact us on 02476 42 12 13.