Adding Screenwash stops Legionella bacterium
Researchers have discovered that car washer bottles are a big source of the Legionella bacterium, but adding screenwash kills the bacterium.
To be entirely truthful, the risk isn’t huge. There are probably less than 500 cases a year of Legionnaires’ Disease in the UK, but new research points to a likely cause for an unpleasant infection for which the source of infection often goes undiscovered.
The Health Protection Agency has been checking out findings that professional drivers were the group mostly at risk – five times more likely to contract Legionnaires’ disease – and have been looking at why. They’ve concluded that the Legionella bacterium – which thrives in warm, stagnant water – finds a happy home in the windscreen washer bottles in cars and vans, explaining why professional drivers seem more at risk.
But it seems there is a very simple solution – screenwash. The HPA checked a number of washer bottles in cars and found that one in five contained the Legionella bacterium. But not a single washer bottle containing screenwash did.
It seems that agents in the screenwash prevents the growth of the bacterium and it is when this bacterium becomes airborne from the stagnant water it carries the Legionella bacterium. Just adding screenwash solves the problem.
Simple then. Add screenwash. See where you’re going. Don’t die.
Have your say - leave a comment