Safe hot tap water and the risk of scalds and legionella infection
- Senior Data Analyst, Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit, Mater Hospital, South Brisbane QLD 4101, Australia; rhockey@mater.org.au
The recent paper in Injury Prevention by Jaye et al on the barriers to safe hot tap highlights the problem I raised last year regarding the perception of plumbers of the risk of legionella infection from hot water systems compared with that of scalds.1 The paper reports that half the respondents thought it more important to control for legionella than to prevent hot tap water burns. Much of the blame for this perception can be attributed to the Australian and New Zealand Standard (AS/NZS 3500.4.2:1997) which sets a minimum temperature of 60°C …
