All candidates for ASSE 12080 Legionella Water Safety and Management Specialist Certification must successfully complete a 24-hour training course encompassing all aspects of ASSE Standard 12080, and successfully pass a 100-question written exam demonstrating core competencies in environmental testing, risk assessment, water safety and management programs, mitigation and remediation methods, construction and renovation and case investigation.

Here are four facts about Legionella and why we as plumbing engineers should care.

After four grueling years at the Virginia Military Institute, upon graduation as an engineer, I decided to follow my own prudent path: I would find the best paying job in an area with the lowest cost of living that afforded me training opportunities. I knew myself well enough that I didn’t want to be stuck behind a desk; I desired interpersonal contact. I always aspired to be an engineering leader — and felt consulting would be the best route to that end.

“It couldn’t happen where I live.” Many in the United States probably thought that when watching the horror occurring in Flint, Michigan, from 2014 to 2016.

There’s no doubt the plumbing industry has had a hyper-focus on Legionella and prevention over the past few years. Yet a simple search on Google reveals outbreaks in an Illinois prison, a Hawaiian hotel and in Riverside County, California — all within the past two months.

In my January 2022 column, I made a broad call for improved water intelligence to offer improved building occupant health. This is nothing new to the HVAC industry, with system monitoring and control extending far beyond the mechanical room and into the most remote areas of the building

You would expect water in a hospital to be safe. But, far too often, water in hospitals and other health care facilities can put patients at risk of severe illness or death.

My first encounter in dealing with combating Legionnaires’ disease through code regulations dates back to 1977. Older individuals will recall that the disease got its name after the outbreak in 1976 in Philadelphia at the American Legion Convention.

Fresh water is an undeniably valuable and essential natural resource. But are plumbing engineers unintentionally putting building occupants are risk by implementing water conservation guidelines and equipment? What are the unseen consequences of water conservation?

When I first entered the trades in 1972, residential tank-style water heaters shipped with the aquastat set to approximately 140° F. Dishwashers had no need to incorporate a sanitizing cycle. Around 1977, water heater manufacturers were required to lower the aquastat temperature setting to approximately 120°, and now, dishwashers needed to incorporate a sanitizing cycle where rinse water in their reservoir was raised to 140° or higher.