Look Before You Leap

Look Before You Leap

Look Before You LeapWatch out! Watch out! There is a plethora of non-compliant holiday hot tubs about. And with the onus on park operators and holiday let landlords to show duty of care, the holiday sector is being urged to look before you leap and check those hot tub credentials.

Currently acknowledged as the must-have search criteria for holiday bookers, there are potentially hazardous pitfalls that many holiday park operators are falling into when offering the hot tub experience to guests. In recent years, a significant number of holiday park operators and holiday let owners have purchased and operate portable spas which are in fact, domestic hot tubs, only designed for home use, and not intended for commercial markets. Often these hot tubs are not suitable for rental lodges and do not comply with the guidance within the Health & Safety Executive’s control of Legionella and other infectious agents in spa-pool system (HSG282), which was released in January 2017.

BEST PRACTICE

Although the HSG282 is not statutory law, it is considered best practice and is viewed as an approved code of practice. The standard would be used in a court of law as a measure of whether or not a risk holder has complied ‘as far a reasonably practical’ to meet the requirements of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974. “A lot of holiday parks are not aware, or worse still, ignore the health and safety guidance that is published relating to hot tub use and control of Legionella in spa pools in business and commercial settings,” comments Chris Brady of 1 Stop Spas, Lincolnshire, whose sister company, SpaTech also runs training for holiday park operators and holiday let landlords.

Look Before You Leap 2“This poses the greatest risk to the use of hot tubs, particularly in a business setting like a holiday park.” In accordance with regulations made by the Health & Safety Executive, regular testing of both pH and disinfection should be made at least three times a day and the results logged and kept for at least five years. A monthly microbiological test is also required, testing for Legionella every quarter. The Management of Spa Pools booklet insists that the tub ‘needs to have a continuous chemical feeder built into the spa to continuously treat it with disinfectant’. These devices are not always installed into a hot tub at the point of manufacture and would therefore have to be retro-fitted at a later stage.

TICKING BOXES

Says Chris: “The release of HSG282 is very particular for all the right reasons, however, there were little or no hot tubs available on the market that ticked all of the criteria that HSG282 recommends. “Now that the industry has taken time to digest the detail released in HSG282, we are starting to see manufacturers designing and producing hot tubs which will be fit for purpose and comply with HSG282 in the very near future.”

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COMPANY CONTACTS

1 STOP SPAS/SPATECH TRAINING Tel. 01522 300737 www.1stopspas.com

SPA SOLUTIONS Tel. 01536 540122 www.spasolution.co.uk

URBAN CEDAR HOT TUBS Tel. 01934 833 844 www.urbancedarhottubs.co.uk