Abstract
To the Editor.— We read with interest the article by Helms et al 1 that describes continuous hyperchlorination of a hospital water system and wish to comment on their observations in view of our own experience with this technique. Following two major outbreaks of legionnaires' disease at this institution in 1980, continuous hyperchlorination of the hospital's hot water system was begun in 1981, with attempts made to maintain chlorine levels of 1.5 mg/L of free chlorine. Although Legionella could no longer be cultured from hot water samples, by 1984 major corrosion damage to the copper plumbing system had occurred, resulting in unacceptable maintenance costs, disruption of patient care activities, and concern about disintegration of the entire water distribution system. An environmental engineer (J.W.P.) was consulted and documented two different types of copper corrosion: (1) a slow, uniform corrosion that occurred when chlorine levels were low and the water pH somewhat acidic
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
