Spain. The Group of Manufacturers of Evaporative Cooling Equipment of the Association of Cold Companies and their Technologies (Aefyt) has collaborated with Dr. Juan Ángel Ferrer, from the Legionella Prevention Area of Microservices, in the collection of the necessary data for the publication of a report that concludes that there is no relationship between these facilities and the number of cases of legionella.
The (Aefyt) presented a report within the framework of the last Air Conditioning and Refrigeration fair in Madrid, which refers to the non-link between refrigeration equipment and legionella providing data that support this statement.
The main conclusions of the publication are as follows:
- Cooling towers and evaporative condensers are not the main problem of legionella in Spain, and there is no direct relationship between these facilities and the number of declared cases of the disease.
- The cases and outbreaks of Legionnaires' Disease, both in Spain, as well as in the European Union or the United States, are mostly caused by domestic hot water networks. Almost 24% of the outbreaks recorded between 2016 and 2017 come from the internal drinking water network.
- Consequently, it is believed necessary to continue investigating the conditioning and epidemiological factors of the appearance of cases and outbreaks of the disease in Spain, as well as to modify the official strategy that is carried out on the prevention of Legionellosis in our country.
- In this last point, it should be noted how the actions developed by the Evaporative Refrigeration Group of AEFYT have helped to counteract the social alarm that had always existed around the towers, which were pointed out as the only one responsible for legionella, as well as to encourage health administrations to extend their controls to all risk facilities recognized by the legislation. n in force. It is enough to remember that in the last three years none of the rotes registered in Spain has been linked to these teams.
In this last point, it should be noted how the actions developed by the Evaporative Refrigeration Group of Aefyt have helped to counteract the social alarm that had always existed around the towers, which were pointed out as the only one responsible for legionella, as well as to encourage health administrations to extend their controls to all risk facilities recognized by the legislation. n in force. It is enough to remember that in the last three years none of the rotes registered in Spain has been linked to these teams.
Source: Aefyt.
