We’re Cleaning Harder Than Ever - and Missing the One Threat We Can’t See
New consumer research across the UK and the USA lands on the same uncomfortable finding on both sides of the Atlantic: the vast majority of people admit they know little or nothing about Legionella – nearly 90% in the UK, and around 85% in the US. For the people responsible for the water systems others rely on, that awareness gap is not a consumer curiosity. It is a public-health risk hiding in plain sight.
Five years on from the pandemic, whole nations have turned germophobic. Research commissioned by Hydrosense across the UK and USA paints a picture of populations scrubbing, sanitising and disinfecting more than at any point in living memory. Nearly eight in ten Americans (79%) – and more than two-thirds of Britons (68%) – say they are more germ-conscious since Covid-19. Yet in both countries, the same people are almost entirely unaware of one of the most dangerous waterborne bacteria in their own homes and buildings.
The paradox is stark: we have never worked harder to feel clean, and we have rarely been less protected against a threat we cannot see, smell or wipe away.
A cleaning boom on both sides of the Atlantic
The surveys – 2,000 UK and 2,000 USA consumers, conducted in May 2026 – show hygiene has become a daily preoccupation, not a passing habit:
- In the UK, more than two-thirds (68%) say they are more germ-conscious since the pandemic, around a third (32%) clean more than they used to, and over half (55%) worry another pandemic could happen. The average Briton now spends around 25 minutes a day cleaning: 152 hours a year, more than six full days.
- In the USA, germ-consciousness runs higher still: 79% are more germ-conscious, 46% clean more than before, and two-thirds (67%) worry about another pandemic. The average American spends around 30 minutes a day cleaning – 182 hours a year, more than seven and a half days.
- UK households spend an estimated £11.85 billion a year on cleaning and hygiene products, with a third (33%) spending more than before the pandemic; in the USA the figure reaches an estimated $135.78 billion, with almost half (45%) spending more – both despite the cost-of-living squeeze.
Hand-washing throughout the day, disinfecting phones, carrying sanitiser, avoiding public door handles, becoming less social – the behaviours repeat across both countries. The instinct to control germs is now deeply embedded on two continents.
The blind spot: up to 90% in the dark
Here is where the two datasets converge on something far more concerning. Despite all this vigilance, nearly 90% of people in the UK – and around 85% in the US – admit they know little or nothing about Legionella. Only one in ten Britons (10%) say they fully understand the risks and how to prevent them; in the US, only around one in six (15%) do.
The shape of that ignorance differs slightly on each side of the Atlantic. In the US, more than one in five (21%) have never even heard of Legionella; in the UK that figure is one in ten (10%), but a far larger share have simply heard the name without grasping the risk. Either way the destination is the same: a population that cannot act on a danger it does not understand.
The consequences show up in what people prioritise. Asked what they would tackle in the home first, most reach for the kitchen, the laundry and the bedrooms. Just 11% of Britons – and 14% of Americans – would think to check their taps or showers for Legionella. The visible dirt gets the attention. The invisible, potentially fatal bacteria in the water system does not.
Why not knowing offers no protection
This is the heart of the issue: Legionella does not wait for you to have heard of it. Awareness is not a shield. The bacteria multiply quietly in man-made water systems – taps, showers, air-conditioning units, spa pools and hot tubs – particularly when water sits stagnant and warm. A spotless kitchen worktop does nothing to change what is growing inside the pipework behind it.
Legionnaires’ disease is a potentially fatal form of pneumonia contracted by inhaling contaminated water droplets. Around 1 in 10 people who contract it in the community will die from complications. Reported cases have been climbing for two decades – the UK recorded 604 cases in 2023, while some US reporting points to an increase of close to 1,000% over the past twenty years. The summer months, when warmer conditions accelerate bacterial growth, are a particular pressure point.
A population that cleans obsessively but has never assessed its water is not a protected population. It is an exposed one that feels safe – which is arguably more dangerous.
For duty-holders, the gap is a liability
For landlords, facilities managers, care providers and anyone with responsibility under HSE Approved Code of Practice L8, these findings should reframe the conversation. If the overwhelming majority of the public – up to 90% – know almost nothing about Legionella, that same lack of awareness travels into the buildings they occupy and manage. Tenants will not flag a risk they cannot perceive. Occupants will not ask about water that looks perfectly clear.
The legal and moral duty to control the risk sits with the people responsible for the system – not with an unaware public. And “we didn’t know” has never been an adequate defence when the guidance, and the tools to act on it, already exist.
Turning the invisible into the actionable
Controlling Legionella starts with the basics: keep water moving, flush taps and showers that see little use, and manage water temperatures so the bacteria cannot thrive. But good practice depends on knowing the actual state of a system rather than assuming it is fine.
That is the gap rapid on-site testing closes. Hydrosense PRO detects all 15 serogroups of Legionella pneumophila – the cause of the overwhelming majority of Legionnaires’ cases – with results in 25 minutes, on site, with no laboratory wait. It turns an invisible, out-of-sight risk into a clear result you can act on the same day, replacing assumption with evidence.
The research is a reminder that vigilance pointed in the wrong direction offers false comfort. People are spending billions to feel clean while the genuinely dangerous threat goes unchecked. Closing that gap does not require more scrubbing. It requires looking where the risk actually lives – in the water.
Hydrosense sees what you can’t.
Find out more: hydrosense-legionella.com
Sources & notes
Consumer statistics: OnePoll surveys of 2,000 UK consumers and 2,000 USA consumers, conducted May 2026, commissioned by Hydrosense. Legionnaires’ disease fatality and surveillance data: US CDC; UKHSA (604 cases, England & Wales, 2023); ECDC (EU/EEA notification rates). National cleaning-spend and time-use figures derived from the respective surveys and population estimates cited in the source releases.
