ASHRAE’s long awaited legionellosis standard has been adopted nearly five years after it was first released for consultation. The new ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 188-2015, outlining risk management practices and procedures for building water systems, is the product of four rounds of public review and revisions in the period since July 2010.

“The industry interest and input into developing this standard has been tremendous,” says Tom Watson chair of ASHRAE’s Standard 188 committee. “With 8,000 to 10,000 cases of Legionnaires’ disease reported each year in the United States, and with more than 10 per cent of those cases fatal, it is vital that we set requirements to manage risk and bacteria.”

In Canada, legionella has recently been detected in some federal government office buildings in Ottawa and Gatineau, Quebec. Also in Quebec, a 2012 outbreak that infected 180 people and caused 13 deaths, is the impetus for the province’s regulations dictating  cooling tower maintenance, record-keeping and regular sampling and testing of water.

The new ASHRAE standard addresses the design, construction, installation, commissioning, operation, maintenance and service of centralized building water systems and components. It sets out minimum legionellosis risk management requirements for potable and not-potable water systems, and specifies the expected performance of legionellosis control measures and associated and documentation criteria. However, the standard does not prescribe any particular method for achieving stipulated outcomes.

The standard also includes informative appendices and references to provide guidance.