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 THE PLUMBER Protects the Health of the Nation. Strong words and a credo willingly accepted by those of us who choose to work in this honorable profession. Prior to modern sanitary plumbing, water-borne diseases were the leading causes of death for centuries. In fact, contaminated drinking water was the single greatest cause of human disease and death.Typhoid fever, cholera and dysentery were the bearers of death in the early part of the 19th century. The collective efforts of plumbing code officials, plumbing engineers, designers and installers have saved more lives in the past 100 years than all the medical professions combined. Remember from last month’s chart (pg. 32) that young children will receive a second-degree burn from 120°F water in 1.2 minutes and a third-degree burn in 3.1 minutes. (The times are longer for healthy adults). It’s easy to see that we have not eliminated danger in the use of potable hot water. Third-degree burns require skin grafts. Skin grafts do not grow as the child grows, which means they must return for additional surgery until fully grown. That’s a childhood filled with misery and a lifetime of disability. If we try to extend the scald injury times from minutes to hours by reducing potable hot water temperatures at the source and within the distribution system, then bacterial disease issues loom larger.
Let’s use any potable hot water vessel you like, be it a standard gas, oil or electric model water heater or an indirect storage tank. Let’s raise the storage temperature to 135°F or 140°F. Now we’ve got much hotter water with contact temperatures ensuring pasteurization of the water for suppressing Legionella population numbers. Dangerous hot water temperatures exist now and with the potential for stacking to occur, scalding times are shortened. We’ll need to address this next and that’s easy to do by adding a listed ASSE 1017 thermostatic mixing valve in the outlet piping.
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Suppose I were to suggest that there is a very simple way to remedy not only the scalding issues, but to kick bugs like Legionella in the pants while, at the same time, reducing liability for everyone involved. Hard to believe, isn’t it? The lawyers won’t like it one bit.
