I wasn’t an avid reader of comic books when I was a child, but like most kids I had a general knowledge of who the main superheroes were. Movies are where I learned about superheroes. As a child of the ’80s, my primary resources were the “Superman” movies starring Christopher Reeve and then the “Batman” movie starring Michael Keaton. It wasn’t until Marvel started its long, highly successful Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) that I really started to learn about more superheroes with unique abilities, skills, and expertise.
Marvel officially launched the MCU with the release of “Iron Man” and then followed with additional standalone movies featuring other superheroes such as Thor, The Incredible Hulk, and Captain America. Individually, each movie was great and each superhero was successful in saving the world. But even the greatest superheroes need help sometimes. By the time the MCU got to the first “Avengers” movie, the world was faced with forces that could not be overcome by just one individual hero, despite their fantastic abilities. As a result, The Avengers were formed as a nearly unbeatable team to help save the Earth and, in future movies, the universe.
Although the stories told in comic books and the movies may be pure fantasy, there are indeed threats to the health and safety of people across the world that local heroes try to combat every day. One such threat is Legionella and other waterborne pathogens that can cause serious illness and even death. In the overall water community, there are a great number of people working to prevent outbreaks of these diseases. However, these pathogens and the conditions in which they thrive are complex and can be a challenge to manage.
Health care facilities are especially sensitive areas when it comes to the prevention of Legionnaires’ disease and other illnesses because the occupants often possess compromised immune systems and their ability to fight off or recover from an infection is greatly reduced. In recent years, the professionals responsible for these and other facilities have been taking a group approach toward assessing the level of risk present at their facility, developing a water management plan, and responding to outbreaks should they occur despite all the best efforts.
These teams usually consist of professionals on staff who are tasked with protecting the facility from harm both in terms of protecting occupants from infection and the facility from legal issues resulting from the negative impacts of an infection or outbreak. These professionals may differ from facility to facility but may fill of any of the following roles:
- Water treatment professional
- Hospital engineer
- Legionella consultant
- Industrial hygienist
- Facility manager
- Infection prevention professional
- Administrator
- Risk manager
ASSE has developed the ASSE 12080 Professional Qualifications Standard and accompanying certification program to ensure that the people occupying these very important roles are fully qualified to participate on the facility’s risk assessment or water management teams. Since the inception of the program, more than 600 professionals have become certified and, with government agencies and legislators understanding the threats from Legionella and other pathogens, it looks as though the program might be building momentum.
This is fantastic news for ASSE and the health and safety of all our communities, but any team is only as strong as its members. If we look back to the Avengers, we saw that even with a group of highly talented superheroes using every strength and skill in their arsenal, they were not enough to turn the tide in the effort to save New York and, ultimately, the Earth, until Bruce Banner rode in on a rickety motorcycle and turned into the Hulk. Once the Hulk was in the mix, the momentum quickly changed and the Avengers finally managed to thwart the interstellar attack and save the city.
Although protecting the health and safety of building occupants, especially the immunocompromised ones serviced in health care facilities, isn’t quite as bombastic and worthy of Dolby Surround Sound as the movies, it is still critically important in the battle against Legionnaires’ disease and other infections. However, it is also incredibly important to ensure that the teams involved in these efforts have all the right people involved.
Just as the Avengers needed the Hulk and his unique strength and abilities to defeat Loki, risk assessment teams and water management teams need the proper tradespeople and their unique skills and knowledge to fully protect their facilities and be able to respond appropriately should an outbreak occur. Plumbers, pipefitters, sprinkler fitters, HVAC technicians, and contractors possess an understanding of the facility’s water systems and the appliances connected to them that the rest of the team members do not. Just as these trades professionals don’t have a background or expertise in hospital administration or epidemiology, the highly skilled professionals with those backgrounds have not spent a career installing, maintaining, and servicing the water systems located in their facilities like the aforementioned tradespeople have.
To better understand the key role tradespeople play and why they need to be included on risk assessment and water management teams, I like to make an overly simplified analogy to buying a car. To be completely transparent, my career path has not gone through the trades — whether it be pipe or auto — so I need to call a professional when I need help in either area. Let’s say it is time to go shopping for a new or used car. Most of us know how to drive and how to put gas in a car and air in the tires. Some of you may even know a bit about the magical things that happen under the hood to make the car go. If so, you know more than I do. I believe someone once told me it involves a flux capacitor or something. Anyway, whether or not you know more about cars than I do, wouldn’t you like to be able to walk into a dealership with your trusted car mechanic who you know can find problems for which you wouldn’t have even known to look? Imagine how many lemons would not get bought each year if you could bring a car expert to spot all the imperfections in each car’s systems before they were purchased.
Risk assessment and water management teams actually have that opportunity. When looking critically at a facility and its water systems, trained and certified contractors, plumbers, pipefitters, sprinkler fitters, and HVAC technicians can look under the proverbial hood to spot dangers that the other members of these teams would not have any way of knowing about. It is not a criticism of those professionals as they bring very needed perspectives and insights to the team, but the reality is all the various members of the team — and everything they bring to the table — are needed for a comprehensive and balanced team.
ASSE has created the following professional qualifications standards to ensure the tradespeople brought into these teams are able to do so as effectively as possible.
- ASSE 12060 – Water Quality Program Professional Qualifications Standard for Employers and Designated Representatives
- ASSE 12061 – Water Quality Program Professional Qualifications Standard for Plumber
- ASSE 12062 – Water Quality Program Professional Qualifications Standard for Pipefitters and HVAC Technicians
- ASSE 12063 – Water Quality Program Professional Qualifications Standard for Sprinkler Fitters
Each standard defines the knowledge, skills, and abilities professionals in each category need to effectively perform as a member of these teams and requires specialized training and certification. These standards go hand in hand with the ASSE 12080 standard and certification to ensure risk assessment and water management teams have all the appropriate professionals in place to properly protect their facilities from Legionella and other pathogens and to be able to react effectively if an outbreak occurs despite everyone’s best good-faith efforts.
Decision-makers at health care and other facilities that need these teams in place are not always aware that their team should include people whose careers are focused on the water systems that represent the opportunities for infection and who know where evil lurks. Requiring that certified tradespeople are part of the risk assessment and water management teams is an easy and responsible way to help ensure all the right professionals are involved in protecting the facility’s occupants from harm and the facility and its administrators from higher levels of liability by preventing outbreaks and properly dealing with any that experience them. The tradespeople are the Hulks in the Avengers equation and the auto mechanic by your side on the car lot.
These risk assessments and water management plans are at the heart of several standards housed within the ASSE 12000 Professional Qualifications Series of Standards.
