On August 20, it was published Lei 52/2018 que estabelece o regime de prevenção e controlo da doença dos legionários e procede à quinta alteração ao Decreto-Lei nº118/2013, de 20 de agosto in Diário da República.

This piece of legislation establishes the regime for the prevention and control of Legionella disease and defines procedures regarding the use and maintenance of systems and equipments. Heat transfer equipments associated to heating systems, ventilation systems and air conditioner or to air treatment units which may generate water sprays, such as cooling towers, evaporative condensers, industrial process water cooling systems, cooling systems, cogeneration systems or humidifiers; as well as systems located in public areas which use water for therapeutic or recreational purposes and may generate water spray, water systems such as domestic hot water, sprinkler irrigation systems or spray cooling systems, ornamental fountains or other water spray generators with a temperature between 20ºC and 45ºC are designated as conductive to proliferation and dissemination of Legionella.

All the equipment conductive to the development and proliferation of Legionella will be required to be registered on the platform developed for this purpose by the Shared Services of the Ministry of Health, E.E., and managed by the DGH.

Additionally, it will be mandatory to develop a maintenance plan based on risk analysis setting out responsibilities and reviews.

Once implemented the maintenance plan, it must be audited at the defined periodicity by an entity certified by IPAC, I.P., or counterpart.

The document describes registration procedures, water treatment monitoring program and audits, as well as procedures to follow in both risk and outbreak situations.

Surveillance measures, audit institutions and penalty regimes, which establish fines of 500 to 4000 € in the case of natural persons and 2500 to 44890 € in the case of legal persons, are also defined.

Adiquímica, leading company in the market with more than 30 years of experience in water treatment and the control and prevention of Legionella, will update all the information available.