Reducing the risk of waterborne infections with British Standards

Recorded: 24 February 2022 (13:00 - 14:00 UK time)

What’s this webinar about?

Waterborne infections present a serious health risk in a wide range of settings, especially so in healthcare and leisure. This webinar introduces one new and one revised, British Standard on water safety. It explains their roles and inter-relationships with other British Standards on water quality; and sets out how they all contribute to the creation of holistic and effective Water Safety Plans (WSPs) capable of protecting those exposed to water sources, from infection and other hazards.

Who is this webinar for?

Healthcare estates, regulators, inspection bodies, public health engineers, infection prevention and control, water treatment specialists, risk assessors, water samplers, leisure centre managers, architects, commissioning engineers, authorising engineers, facilities management companies, microbiology laboratories, soft FM providers and plumbers.

What will participants gain?

• Introductions to the new BS 8580-2:2022 on risk assessments for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and the revised BS 7592:2022 on sampling for Legionella bacteria in water systems
• An understanding of how these standards interrelate with BS 8680 and BS 8580-1
• An expert explanation of how to develop and implement an effective Water Safety Plan using these standards
• Ideas on how they can be applied in healthcare, leisure, commercial and industrial premises
• The opportunity to participate in a Q&A with our experts

Agenda

• Welcome and introduction - Chair, Bjorn Nielsen, Principal Scientist for Microbiology, ALS Environmental UK
• Role of the brand-new BS 8580-2:2022 and the revised BS 7592:2022 in reducing the risk of waterborne infections - Dr Susanne Surman-Lee, Director/ Co-owner, Leegionella Ltd and Dr John V Lee, Director and Consultant Clinical Scientist, Leegionella Ltd
• Q&A session - chaired by Bjorn Nielsen alongside Dr Susanne Surman-Lee and Dr John Lee
• Inform delegates about the availability of the webinar on the BSI website, the availability of the standards on BSI shop and the promo codes - Jessy Mathew, Standards Development Manager, British Standards Institution (BSI)
• Summary and close - Chair, Bjorn Nielsen, Principal Scientist for Microbiology, ALS Environmental UK

For a unique insight into the latest water safety standards and how you can use them to protect water users from infection, please watch the on-demand webinar now.

Bjorn is Principal Scientist for Microbiology at ALS Environmental UK, which is part of a global testing services company. He is a Chartered Biologist and member of the Royal Society of Biology, Microbiology Society and Royal Society for Public Health.

Bjorn is the Chair of British Standards committee EH/3/4 which is responsible for developing national water quality standards and contributing to European and International standards development. He has been involved in standardisation for seven years and has represented the UK as an active contributor to ISO standards working groups for water and food microbiology. He was convenor of the working group for the revision of BS EN ISO 8199.

He is a qualified microbiologist with over twenty years of experience in accredited water and food testing, working to ISO 17025 quality standards, Drinking Water Testing Specification (DWTS) and retailer and industry standards. He is responsible for technical management, project management, method development and validation across several UK laboratories.

Dr Susanne Surman-Lee BSc, PhD, C.Biol. ,FRSB,  FRSPH.,FIHEEM,FWMSoc  is the Chair of the BSI panel that drafted the BS 8680 Water Safety plans. Code of Practice and BS 8580-2 Water quality. Risk assessments for Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other waterborne pathogens – Code of practice.

She has been a member EH/3/4 for over 20 years working with both national and international standards committees producing standards relating to water safety.

She is a State Registered Clinical Scientist (Public Health Microbiologist) with over 45 years’ experience in both clinical and public health microbiology. She was a Director of the HPA (now UKHSA) London Food Water and Environmental Microbiology Laboratory and is now Director and Co-owner of Leegionella Ltd, an independent public health consultancy recognized internationally and nationally for its expertise in the detection of waterborne pathogens and prevention of waterborne disease, supporting the development, implementation and auditing of water safety plans for building water systems particularly in healthcare, commercial and leisure and travel sectors, trouble shooting and supporting investigations into cases/outbreaks and gross contamination associated with water systems and associated equipment.

Susanne is also a Member of the National Register of University Certificated Expert Witnesses, Programme Director for the RSPH Water Webinar Series and Chair of the RSPH Water Special Interest Group.  For almost 20 years she has been involved with the development of national and international guidelines including the ACOP L8, HSG 274, HSG 282, HTM 04-01, PWTAG Swimming Pool Water and is also chair of the ESGLI working group which updated the European Legionella Technical Guidelines  and associated guidance for managing water systems during the COVID pandemic.

John is an independent consultant public health microbiologist and director of Leegionella Ltd.and is a technical advisor to and director of the Pool Water Treatment Advisory Group. He has been involved in standardisation for over 30 years, is a past Chairman of BSI EH/3/4, and chaired the panels preparing BS 8580 part 1 and BS 7592.

He retired from the UK Health Protection Agency (HPA, formerly PHLS) in 2010 where he led the Water and Environmental Microbiology Reference Unit. His 37 years in the PHLS/HPA were spent researching the detection, survival and control of pathogenic microorganisms in the environment, particularly water and air. He has wide experience in the routine examination of environmental specimens and the prevention, investigation and control of outbreaks of waterborne and airborne disease including: gastroenteritis caused by various bacterial and viral agents; Legionellosis; mycobacterial and Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. From 1982 he worked extensively on Legionnaires’ disease and has been involved in the environmental investigation of over 65 outbreaks in the UK and abroad.

He has acted as an advisor to the UK Health and Safety Executive, the UK Department of Health and the equivalent ministries in several other countries. He has acted as an adviser to the WHO on several occasions (Diarrhoeal Disease Control Programme, Legionnaires’ Disease, Maintaining Water Quality in Buildings, Aerosol transmission of SARS in domestic premises, Recreational Water).

BSI is also committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with this webinar contributing to Goal 3 on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being and Goal 6 on clean water and sanitation.