Title: An Ocean Apart: How the UK & US Regulate & Respond to Legionella
Learner Objectives:
This presentation will provide a comparative technical and legal analysis as it relates to Legionella in the UK and US with the intent of educating the listener as to the differences in regulation and response while exploring how the two nations can learn from each other.
Content/Topic Outline:
Presenter:
Bob Cunningham, ASSE 12080, is a Principal with International Water Consultants. He has 53 years of water treatment experience across a broad range of applications and industries and served as President of the Cooling Technology Institute and on the Board of the Association of Water Technologies. Bob is a sought-after speaker, consultant and expert witness. He has served as both a consulting and testifying expert in water treatment related matters across the globe. He is the recipient of numerous industry accolades including the esteemed Ray Baum Memorial Water Technologist of the Year.
John Sandford, CWT, started his water treatment career in 1990. He is currently the only UK based Certified Water Technologist (CWT), he has a master’s degree (MSc) in Water and Wastewater Engineering from Cranfield University, a bachelor’s degree (BSc Hons) in Building Processes from BCUC and is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Occupational Health and Safety. John is an elected member of the Water Management Society Council (the UK equivalent of the AWT) and previously sat on the Water Management Society’s Technical Committee. John is the Principle Consultant for SMS Environmental in Oxford UK. In his spare time, John likes to ponder life and just how and where it all went so horribly wrong.
Adam Green, ASSE 12080, is an attorney and the Chairman of Baker Donelson’s Water Technology and Water Treatment Group. Over the past 20 years, he has successfully consulted and defended water treatment related claims and litigation on a national scale over wide array of matters ranging from legionellosis related wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits to high value property damage claims arising from catastrophic system failures incident to a myriad of operational, design, maintenance and treatment related issues. He is a frequent author and speaker at the Association of Water Technologies, Cooling Technology Institute, International Association of Defense Counsel and others. He has published numerous technical papers on water treatment in the CTI Journal, the AWT Analyst and the National Engineer. Adam frequently ponders how his parents raised him to have confidence that is disproportionate to his looks and abilities
Presentation Description:
"We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language…and Legionella." Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost (1887) (mostly).
Legionella is a global occurrence, and legionellosis is a universal health concern. Nonetheless, the approach and response to the bacteria and disease by two of the most scientifically advanced and jurisprudentially developed nations in the world, England and the United States, are profoundly distinct. This paper, written and presented by experts from both sides of the Atlantic, compares and contrasts the material differences in the regulation of Legionella bacteria while examining the alarming disparity in the consequences for incidents of disease. The primary concern for US defendants in cases involving Legionella related injuries has been civil liability and the prospect of monetary damages. In the UK, building managers and owners must fear criminal prosecution and the possibility of incarceration.
The varied approach and response to Legionella will be illustrated through noteworthy real world case studies including the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia (July 1976), the Forum 28 Theatre in Barrow-in-Furness in northwest England (August 2002), the Hotel Chester in Starkville, Mississippi (2010) and New York City’s historic Opera House Hotel (July 2015). For instance, in the UK, where Legionella has come under criminal regulation since the 1980s, the Forum 28 case resulted in a building manager facing manslaughter charges in a criminal court, losing her livelihood, and having her reputation destroyed in the media, while the New York Opera House Hotel outbreak triggered the introduction of regulations targeting evaporative cooling towers throughout the city but no criminal consequences.
How can two of the most scientifically advanced nations in the world, each with highly developed systems of jurisprudence, address the same problem so differently? How can the repercussions for Legionnaires’ disease in the US, which has derived its common law from England, be so different than those in the UK? Which approach is more effective? Is the US sleepwalking into British style over-regulation? What can the two nations learn from each other?
The speakers will make the case for a measured and flexible approach and a reasonably proportionate response to incidents of disease.
Presenter Bio:
Bob Cunningham, ASSE 12080, is a Principal with International Water Consultants. He has 53 years of water treatment experience across a broad range of applications and industries and served as President of the Cooling Technology Institute and on the Board of the Association of Water Technologies. Bob is a sought-after speaker, consultant and expert witness. He has served as both a consulting and testifying expert in water treatment related matters across the globe. He is the recipient of numerous industry accolades including the esteemed Ray Baum Memorial Water Technologist of the Year.
John Sandford, CWT, started his water treatment career in 1990. He is currently the only UK based Certified Water Technologist (CWT), he has a master’s degree (MSc) in Water and Wastewater Engineering from Cranfield University, a bachelor’s degree (BSc Hons) in Building Processes from BCUC and is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Occupational Health and Safety. John is an elected member of the Water Management Society Council (the UK equivalent of the AWT) and previously sat on the Water Management Society’s Technical Committee. John is the Principle Consultant for SMS Environmental in Oxford UK. In his spare time, John likes to ponder life and just how and where it all went so horribly wrong.
Adam Green, ASSE 12080, is an attorney and the Chairman of Baker Donelson’s Water Technology and Water Treatment Group. Over the past 20 years, he has successfully consulted and defended water treatment related claims and litigation on a national scale over wide array of matters ranging from legionellosis related wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits to high value property damage claims arising from catastrophic system failures incident to a myriad of operational, design, maintenance and treatment related issues. He is a frequent author and speaker at the Association of Water Technologies, Cooling Technology Institute, International Association of Defense Counsel and others. He has published numerous technical papers on water treatment in the CTI Journal, the AWT Analyst and the National Engineer. Adam frequently ponders how his parents raised him to have confidence that is disprop