ELITE PROGRAM - PROFICIENCY CERTIFICATION

For testing Legionella in their laboratories, Magnus has proficiency certification from the ELITE Program of the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) in the United States.

 

Although Legionella bacteria live in a wide variety of freshwater habitats, they are difficult to isolate. An appropriate isolation protocol is critical in determining whether Legionella is present in a sample and at what concentration. The ELITE program was created as a tool for laboratories to test their Legionella isolation techniques against standardized samples.

 

The ELITE program certifies laboratories in the isolation of Legionella from water samples. Laboratories that do this properly receive a certificate of proficiency indicating that their procedures comply with federal recommendations and meet or exceed industry standards for Legionella isolation.*

 

*Information taken from the CDC website.

 

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ISO 17025:2005 CERTIFICATION

Our analytical laboratory is accredited by the Centre d'expertise en analyse environnementale du Québec for the field 606, air microbiology, including the international standard ISO/IEC 17025:2005. This allows us to offer you the enumeration service of Legionella spp. and Legionella pneumophila.

 

This certification, issued by Quebec’s center of expertise for environmental testing, allows us to offer you the services of our laboratories for Legionella bacteria analysis, as required by the regulations of the RBQ concerning water cooling towers.

 

By performing these tests in our laboratories, we can support you more effectively in your cooling tower maintenance program and ensure your compliance with RBQ regulatory requirements.

 

Testing for Legionella pneumophila should use a standardized and specific method of growth on culture medium, when restarting a cooling tower after winterization, at intervals of no more than 30 days during the operating period and following emergency decontamination resulting from the detection of more than 1,000,000 CFU/L of Legionella pneumophila.