Spas can provide perfect conditions for bacteria to survive and are a potential health hazard
TWO YEARS ago the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in Britain published a guide to health and safety issues in spa pools.
The guide ran to 124 pages and illustrated the seriousness with which the health authorities regarded the potential risks involved following the deaths of four people in as many years from Legionnaire's disease.
Spas are associated with cleanliness and general wellbeing. Yet the HPA said, in the wrong hands, they had "perfect conditions" for bacteria to survive and were a potential health hazard unless vigilance was maintained.
As a microbiologist, lecturer at Trinity College Dublin and an adjudicator on the white flag awards which are given to leisure facilities that maintain high standards, Dr Ronnie Russell says the level of awareness about the risks from badly run water facilities is frequently lost not only on the public, but on the staff that run such facilities.
"I've seen results submitted for the white flag, showing that chlorine levels are completely out of balance and they don't even realise it and they are presenting them for an award. That means the management and the operators don't understand and the public are the ones who are suffering."
He says a new training programme for the spa industry, called Skillnet, which was launched last week, must give special emphasis to the issue of hygiene and community-acquired infection.
The industry has burgeoned in the Republic over the past decade here and is now a major employer with 3,000 staff. Incidents of reported infection are rare and most facilities maintain high standards of hygiene, but the discovery of the potentially lethal legionella bacteria in a spa pool in Donegal two years ago illustrate the dangers involved.
"Spa pools are something that collect lots and lots of microbes with lots of nutrition and the right heat for them to multiply and grow and then blows it around like an aerosol. It has all the elements of risk," Russell warns.
He says the growth of spas has created a supply industry which needs greater monitoring.
"We have come across victims of sales men who are shifting water disinfection systems, filtration systems, cleaning systems and disinfectants - things that are supposed to have a beneficial effect and look after people's health and safety. Nobody is measuring how efficacious any of these things are.
"Unless you know the principals of how those systems work and how to measure their efficacy, you are not going to know the potential risks involved.
"I have come across leisure centres and spas where water filters are blocked and never changed. They are full of pseudomona [ a bacteria commonly found in water that can cause skin and urinary infections] and legionella. These circulate into the water and nobody is measuring them."
He says standards of hygiene are critically important given the recent rise of so-called medi spas which specialise in skin treatments, colon hydrotherapy and other therapies.
"Most people using these spas are young. A few germs won't be doing them any harm. However, there are more and more people with compromised health making use of these facilities in a therapeutic sense and it does not take much to push them over the edge health-wise," he explains.
"That means that the maintenance of a spa becomes very important, much more important than it used to be and, as these facilities get older, they need proper maintenance."
Spa pool operators are recommended to drain them once a week and use the correct disinfectant and filtration system that will normally contain the spread of the bacteria.
Mary O'Donoghue, the owner of Sanctuary Spa in Tralee and one of the drivers of the Skillnet programme, says the modules on health and safety will cover all aspects of the legislation including spa hygiene, the perils of cross-infection and sterilisation methods.
"I will put my reputation on line. This course will be delivered to such a high professional standard that has not been available to our industry before," she explains.
"This course is addressing the whole spa culture, working conditions of therapists and spa managers. We have to develop the staff to bring up the standards because it is such a huge industry now," she says.
"Therapists need to be trained and developed because they will get bored. If there is no career progression, they will get jaded with it."
The spa industry is one of the oldest leisure industries in the world dating back to classical times. Historically, spas were built up around hot or cold springs, but technological developments mean that spas can now be replicated anywhere.
The industry is worth €30 billion worldwide but few places in the world have seen such exponential growth as there has been in Ireland in recent years.
Ten years ago there was no more than a dozen spa and wellness centres in Ireland; now there are 180 and rising. The growth is being driven by tax incentives for hotels, increased awareness of health and wellness issues and higher levels of disposable income.
"Essentially a spa is a place that promotes health and well-being with water involved," says Valerie Walsh who will be managing the Skillnet programme for the industry.
"Traditionally the word spa revolves around water. It has evolved too much now to pin down a definition anymore."
The Government is providing €486,000 and the industry itself is expected to contribute €120,000 to the Skillnet, a series of courses which will be co-ordinated by the Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management (Ilam), the body for all sports, fitness, aquatic, health spas and associated facilities in the Republic.
The courses will centre on spa management rather than the various therapies and treatments, which are already well catered for. The diploma and certificate in spa and wellness will concentrate on technical, marketing and personnel management, business planning, finance and IT and there will be a special emphasis on health and safety management.
Walsh says standards need to be maintained in the industry especially given the proliferation of spa facilities in recent years and the recent downturn in the economy.
The money will be available until the end of 2009 and will be available on a "use it or lose it basis". It is hoped that 300 spa workers from 60 spas will sign up for the courses and spa operators will have to cover only 20 per cent of the costs of these courses.
"People have to eat and sleep but they don't have to have spa treatments. We want to give the spa managers the skills to deal with the hard times as well and look after their core business," she says.
Ilam chief executive Killian Fisher says the industry had some "cowboys and cowgirls" operating in it because of lack of regulation, but the diploma and certificates which will be available through the Skillnet programme will go a long way towards industry self-regulation.
He points out that spas are potentially dangerous places which need properly trained staff to ensure the safety of the public.
"Hopefully, these courses will root out bad practices and show that we are a credible industry that offers good quality training to our staff and maintains high standards," he says.
