If cooling towers are poorly maintained there is a risk of microbial growth such as Legionella which in turn might spread via aerosols and infect humans. This may lead to an outbreak of legionnaires’ disease. The purpose of this study was to highlight the risks of Legionella and cooling towers along with investigating the legal responsibility of businesses and supervision authorities in this regard. The study also investigated whether business should be obligated to register their cooling towers at supervising authorities. The study was partly based on a survey which was sent to Sweden’s 290 municipalities and 21 county administration boards to investigate their knowledge regarding Legionella and cooling towers and if they had inventoried which of their facilities that uses cooling towers. The results of the survey showed that 16% of the municipalities and none of the county administration board had inventoried which of their facilities that uses cooling towers. Half of the municipalities do not have any knowledge if any of their facilities uses cooling towers. Moreover, 45% of the municipalities and 30% of the county administration boards consider that business should register their cooling towers. The results showed that many of Sweden’s municipalities and county administration boards have shortcomings in their knowledge and supervision. Legislation and priorities need to be assessed and regulatory guidance from the Public Health Agency of Sweden is necessary for future progress.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-153228 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Eriksson, Rebecca |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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