Users and suppliers of water treatment systems that use elemental copper for Legionella control should be aware that, from 1 February this year, it will be illegal to sell or use water treatment systems that use such copper to add copper ions to water as a biocide.
A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) bulletin published on 29 November explained that the decision had been taken ‘at EU level’ under the Biocidal Products Directive ‘because no manufacturer supported the use of elemental copper for use as biocides in these systems duding a review period that ended in September 2011’. The HSE says its ‘primary concern’ is that Legionella control is not compromised, and stresses that businesses and organisations have a continuing responsibility to manage the risks. While it plans to ‘take a sensible and proportionate’ approach to enforcement, it urges users of affected water treatment systems to contact the manufacturer promptly ‘to discuss a way forward’. Although it intends pursuing an ‘essential use derogation’ from the EU for continuing use of copper in UK Legionella control systems, the Executive stresses that it cannot predict the outcome, and that the result of its application will not be known when the ban takes effect on 1 February. For more information, visit: www.hse.gov.uk/legionnaires/faqs.htm#silver-copper-systems or www.dh.gov.uk/health/2012/11/silver-copper-ionisation
