Legionella and water safety experts SAS Water has forged a series of partnerships with Midlands Universities, colleges, and schools.

The company, with headquarters in Leek, recently completed cleaning and disinfection work at De Montford University’s engineering department in Leicester.

SAS Water, which has a team of legionella consultants and commercial plumbers, also works with Staffordshire University, the Apollo Buckingham Health Science Campus, Crewe, and schools and academies including the JCB Academy, Rocester, Derby High School and Derby Grammar School.

All staff working on educational premises have enhanced DBS checks and can work on school premises at all times.

Managing Director Lizzie Ward said: “We’re proud of our work in the education sector and are steadily increasing our reach by adding new colleges and schools. They use water in many different ways, both everyday water use for sports centre showers and kitchen taps, but also in specialist settings, including laboratories and workshops.

“It’s vital to get expert support. The law says you must have access to competent help and advice necessary to apply Health and Safety legislation. But more fundamentally it’s about ensuring you have taken action to keep people as safe as possible from bugs and viruses in your workplace.

“Legionnaires’ Disease is a form of pneumonia. Figures from Public Health England show around 500 people are known to suffer from it each year and experts regard this as a low figure as many cases are thought to be misdiagnosed.”

In the USA, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention state that one in 10 people who get sick from Legionnaires’ Disease will die due to complications from their illness.

Lizzie said: “Part of my personal goals as a water hygiene company business owner is to continually raise awareness of how companies should work to prevent legionella in the workplace and working with education providers is fundamental to this. The Covid-19 pandemic placed public hygiene at the centre of a national debate but that needs to be widened to raise awareness of viral infections, such as Legionnaires’ Disease.

“I trained and worked as a teacher and I’m passionate about education.”

Stephen Cliff, Team Leader (Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautical), at De Montford University said: “The SAS Water team perform their cleaning and disinfection tasks quickly and efficiently to a good standard. They are always friendly and very helpful in their support and advice.”

In addition to legionella control work at Staffordshire University, SAS Water is also carrying-out research at the university as part of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership. The project is tasked with developing a sensor-based solution to automatically monitor water for the bacteria, using low powered, cutting-edge sensor technologies and a cloud-based management system.

SAS Water has more than 30 years’ experience of working with clients across private and public sectors including factories, councils, nursing homes, housing associations, hotels, spas, and leisure centres.

ENDS

For media enquiries please contact Nigel Howle by telephone on 0776 2043436 or by email at [email protected].