Legionella bacteria are naturally present in freshwater environments like lakes and streams but become a health concern when they grow and spread in human-made building water systems, including showerheads, sink faucets, cooling towers, water fountains, hot water tanks, heaters, and large plumbing systems.
Once Legionella multiplies in a building water system, water containing the bacteria can contaminate small droplets that individuals may inhale. Legionnaires’ disease, a rare but serious pneumonia lung infection, can develop from individuals breathing in contaminated water droplets or accidentally swallowing water containing Legionella into the lungs.
Certain groups of people are at increased risk for getting Legionnaires’ disease, including those 50 years or older, current/former smokers, and people with chronic disease or weakened immune systems.
For healthcare facilities, water management programs are especially important to help reduce the risk of infection among vulnerable patient populations, staff, and visitors. The most common and effective way of removing these bacteria from drinking water is reverse osmosis filtration.
Reverse osmosis (RO) is an effective way to remove Legionella bacteria from water, reducing the risk of Legionnaires’ disease. Legionella bacteria measure between 2 to 3 microns in length and 0.3 to 0.9 microns in width.
Quench RO systems use a special membrane that is much smaller than the bacteria, around 0.01 microns or smaller. This membrane filters water through a combination of sediment, carbon, and semipermeable membrane filtration, removing bacteria, including Legionella, and other impurities from the water. As a result, Quench machines with reverse osmosis filtration ensure cleaner, safer drinking water.
All Quench bottleless water coolers and ice machines can be installed with our state-of-the-art reverse osmosis filtration technology to ensure your workplace drinking water and ice are free from harmful contaminants.