Brighton school disinfected after Legionnaires’ disease found in showers (From The Argus)

As long as the brits rely on a quick swipe with Andrex to clean themselves - and steadfastly refuse to have a proper shower (which means washing all the smelly bits) before swimming in a public pool the problem will persist.
If the rest of the body is as bad as the minging shoes you see a lot of children wearing to school - Yuk!

so where are these letters then my child goes to that school and this is the first ive heard of it considering the school have access to sms messesaging and emails why havent the sent out txts or emails ? i think it is discusting to have to find out this way

Agreed, and it doesn't help that a lot of teenagers are notoriously reluctant to get anywhere near a shower or bath anyway. I was born and brought up abroad and, certainly in the tropical countries, was expected to clean myself BEFORE getting into a pool and then shower off afterwards as well.

chilliman wrote:
Agreed, and it doesn't help that a lot of teenagers are notoriously reluctant to get anywhere near a shower or bath anyway. I was born and brought up abroad and, certainly in the tropical countries, was expected to clean myself BEFORE getting into a pool and then shower off afterwards as well.

I should say - agreed with Old Lady's Gin.

While I wouldn't normally comment on comments, I think it's important that your misconceptions are challenged. The Leionella bacteria did not come from the children. The bacteria is common in naturally occurring water sources such as rivers, lakes and aquifers. As all of our drinking water comes form the natural environment it is inevitable that the bacteria will get into mains drinking water. Unfortunately the amount of chlorine needed to kill all of the bacteria in our drinking water would make it totally undrinkable.

When the bacteria gets into the pipes of any water system, if the water is able to reach room temperature then the bacteria can start to multiply, if the temperature of the water gets to around body temperature (37 degrees) then as long as there is a source of nutrients in the water the bacteria will be in ideal conditions. Then when you get in the shower the water comes out in an aerosol mixed with the bacteria, you breathe it into your lungs where it can grow.

The school did exactly the right thing by having a proactive monitoring regime in place where it obviously sent water samples away for analysis. ALL COMMERCIAL/PUBLIC BUILDINGS INCLUDING PRIVATE LANDLORDS SHOULD HAVE CONTROLS IN PLACE. This meant the school identified the problem before it had the opportunity to cause illness. In fact it is very unlikely that people would have become ill from the showers. The simple fact is that ll of the major outbreaks have been from air conditioning plant and cooling plant (do you run an office - have you checked your air conditioning?)

The bacteria Legionella pneumophila was first identified in 1976 at a conference of the American Legion (hence the name!) after a large outbreak of pneumonia. It was isolated from the air conditioning system.

I guess what I'm saying is, the school should be congratulated for undertaking proactive monitoring, after all, many of us will have this in our homes too.

alex_richardson wrote:
While I wouldn't normally comment on comments, I think it's important that your misconceptions are challenged. The Leionella bacteria did not come from the children. The bacteria is common in naturally occurring water sources such as rivers, lakes and aquifers. As all of our drinking water comes form the natural environment it is inevitable that the bacteria will get into mains drinking water. Unfortunately the amount of chlorine needed to kill all of the bacteria in our drinking water would make it totally undrinkable.

When the bacteria gets into the pipes of any water system, if the water is able to reach room temperature then the bacteria can start to multiply, if the temperature of the water gets to around body temperature (37 degrees) then as long as there is a source of nutrients in the water the bacteria will be in ideal conditions. Then when you get in the shower the water comes out in an aerosol mixed with the bacteria, you breathe it into your lungs where it can grow.

The school did exactly the right thing by having a proactive monitoring regime in place where it obviously sent water samples away for analysis. ALL COMMERCIAL/PUBLIC BUILDINGS INCLUDING PRIVATE LANDLORDS SHOULD HAVE CONTROLS IN PLACE. This meant the school identified the problem before it had the opportunity to cause illness. In fact it is very unlikely that people would have become ill from the showers. The simple fact is that ll of the major outbreaks have been from air conditioning plant and cooling plant (do you run an office - have you checked your air conditioning?)

The bacteria Legionella pneumophila was first identified in 1976 at a conference of the American Legion (hence the name!) after a large outbreak of pneumonia. It was isolated from the air conditioning system.

I guess what I'm saying is, the school should be congratulated for undertaking proactive monitoring, after all, many of us will have this in our homes too.

Well said and very informative thank you

Legionella may not come from children but that doesn't change the fact that the majority are smelly, disgusting little guttersnipes with an adversion to soap and water!