In December 2020, the European Union (EU) revised the Drinking Water Directive by approving a new set of rules that extended Legionella monitoring to every potable water system in the EU. The new rules entered force on January 12, 2021, with new member states having two years to transpose them into national legislation. Member states are left free to determine their approach to testing, as they can choose the methods they find most appropriate for the purposes of sampling Legionella. In response to this, a new study has been initiated in Italy comparing the culture methods of testing for Legionella with other methods. Currently, the number of laboratories involved in this study is up to 33, with more requests coming in every day. The hope for this study, which requires all laboratories to test 25 water samples each using all the methods, is that it will give an estimate of the divergence that can exist between culture-based methods and others so that experts can make a comparison. The outcome of the study should be available by the end of April. To read more about the Upcoming Study to Assess the Available Detection Methods for Legionella, click here. To read our firm’s white paper on Legionnaires’ disease and COVID-19, click here. For more information on Legionnaires’ disease, check out the National Academies of Sciences Management of Legionella in Water Systems Report here. Contact Jules Zacher for a 100% free consultation today. THE MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE HAVE BEEN PREPARED BY JULES ZACHER, P.C. FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND ARE NOT LEGAL ADVICE OR A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL COUNSEL.