Shower head cleaning and descaling
Health and Safety Executive ACOP and Guidance L8 states:
“The presence of sediment, sludge, scale and other material within the system, together with biofilms, are also thought to play an important role in harbouring and providing favourable conditions in which the Legionella bacteria may grow. A biofilm is a thin layer of micro-organisms which may form a slime on the surfaces in contact with water. Such biofilms, sludge and scale can protect legionella bacteria from temperatures and other biocides that would otherwise kill or inhibit these organisms if they were freely suspended in the water.”
Legionella risk from showerheads
Shower heads and hoses which remain semi wetted after use can accumulate lime scale and harbour biofilms and bacterial growth. As showers, by design produce aerosols that can be inhaled by the user, particular care should be taken to clean shower heads and hoses routinely as part of your Legionella control programme.
As part of your routine Legionella control maintenance and to comply with H&SE ACOP L8, HSG274 part2, shower heads and hoses should be dismantled, cleaned and descaled on a quarterly basis.
IWS operatives are trained to remove, dismantle and clean all designs of shower heads as part of a routine service package.
To ensure that shower heads are left scale free and any underlying biofilm and bacteria are removed IWS utilise IWS ShowerSafe.
IWS ShowerSafe is designed to chemically remove lime scale and then kill any underlying bacteria to reduce the risk of Legionellosis and help you ensure compliance with H&SE Legislation.
Because IWS does not contain chlorine based disinfectants which degrade with time IWS ShowerSafe can be used repeatedly and only discharged once depleted; this means that the environmental impact of routinely discharging disinfectants to drain is minimised.
