This is a short story about hygiene and introducing new tests to a long-running system.

I’m new at my current job and we have an environmental monitoring program (checking for the germ levels in your facility) that existed for a year already but I basically completely overhauled. It really was neither effective nor efficient before.

In the same vein, I suggested having a look at the microbe levels of our water supply. While the water that reaches the facility must be (and almost always is) clean by law, everything that happens to the water inside the facility is controlled by no external body. And the company I work at apparently has never done water tests for legionella before (despite having multiple showers). Now, legionella pneumophila is pretty much only dangerous (but then it can be quickly life-threatening) if it’s inhaled, such as via aerosoles from hot showers.

To come to a point (partly because I need to get ready for work): I introduced comprehensive water tests, many higher-ups believed for two weeks after the results that I must have made an error in the way I took samples, despite me literally researching for days how it needs to be done correctly because I absolutely didn’t want to be doing it wrong (in our case, it’s a technique you could learn by heart in two hours). We ordered an external lab to take samples and they came back with the same results (that our showers are highly contaminated and basically our coworkers have been showering in legionella for years) and now we got this whole can of worms to deal with.

But I’m glad. Would rather have this to deal with than someone of the company being admitted to the ICU because of that.