Interview with Kris Rowland

Kris Rowland is the Head of Technical, Training and Compliance at Severn Trent Water Hygiene. His team of scientists work tirelessly to ensure Severn Trent work to the guidance on Legionella as published by the HSE and uphold the highest quality standards as a Legionella Control Association member.

With over 20 years’ experience working with Legionella, managing laboratories and providing consultancy services, Kris’ expertise and guidance is essential to Severn Trent Water Hygiene’s success.

Kris is also a talented trainer, gifted in making Legionella awareness training (among other water-based topics) engaging and memorable.

What are you passionate about?

Fundamentally, I’m a Scientist, so I’m passionate about using evidence-based processes to maintain Legionella compliance, reduce risk and ultimately, keep people safe.

We use two powerful software systems, ZetaSafe and Sample Track, to maintain our compliance. I believe everything we do should be based on the data that these systems help us to collect and analyse.

What do you wish more people knew about Legionella?

It would be great if more people knew the potential dangers of Legionella bacteria. Most people are fully aware of the dangers associated with asbestos, but have very little understanding of the very real and comparable risk that Legionella poses.

Also, it would be useful if more responsible people understood their level of culpability for non-compliance. There are still far too many mis-managed water systems out there that place vulnerable people at risk of serious harm.

Tell me a bit about your working relationship with Ian Bufton, and how you’ve helped Sample Track grow over the years.

I’ve known Ian for 20+ years! We originally started working together on an early version of Sample Track, which at that time was called LabCom. Back then I was a manager at a laboratory, and the software helped us to capture and report on our data and results.

Over the years the system has grown based upon our suggestions. In particular, the scope of Sample Track has grown. It’s morphed from a simple data entry and analysis suite to a full cloud-based sample tracking ecosystem.

We now use the system to capture sample information out in the field using a smartphone, and we’re able to automatically report sample results from labs to clients. The result has been a sea change in Legionella sampling efficiency. It’s also made our sampling process paper-free!

What does the future of Legionella sample tracking look like to you?

Whatever it is, it’s going to involve SampleTrack – they’re ahead of the curve! We’re currently looking to implement an automated Legionella sample interpretation system, helping our clients understand their sample results and chose the appropriate remedial actions with the help of their account managers.

Can you tell me about an upcoming development within the world of water hygiene that excites you?

With the possibility of updates to the core Legionella guidance (ACOP L8 and HSG274) we could see a number of amendments that will need to be effectively communicated and implemented to all stakeholders. The guidance shapes how we work, and as a scientist I love to watch the industry adapt evolve according to the latest studies.

In a similar vein and from a training perspective I firmly believe that the guidance should be easily digestible for non-experts, and I think a few tweaks would make big difference to its accessibility. This could prevent inexperienced people from coming to the wrong conclusions, which in turn helps keep us all safer.

Lastly, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

Sometimes we can fall into the trap of ‘over thinking’ a problem, instead of taking the issues ‘back to basics’ and keeping things as simple as possible. As such, one of my favourite pieces of advice would be that “to think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing”.