Source: New York Times Online, August 6, 2015
Posted on: http://fpn.advisen.com
New York City buildings with water-cooling towers must assess and disinfect the units within the next two weeks under an order issued on Thursday by health officials in response to the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the South Bronx.
The directive, by the health commissioner, Dr. Mary T. Bassett, came as two more deaths from the illness were reported, bringing the toll to 10 since the outbreak – the largest in the city’s history – began last month.
At least 100 people have been infected so far, and state and federal health officials have stepped in to help address the spread of the deadly respiratory illness.
The breadth of the order, which covers thousands of buildings, immediately raised questions about whether so many inspections could be carried out so quickly and how the city could enforce the requirement. Officials have said they do not have a registry of cooling towers, which are typically found in large modern, or modernized, buildings.
Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected on Friday to provide details of a legislative plan he announced this week that is meant to tighten regulation of the cooling towers. His proposal is expected to include standards for testing and maintaining such towers. If adopted, it would make New York City one of the first jurisdictions to impose such requirements.
Legionella bacteria, which causes the airborne disease, has been found in five cooling towers in the South Bronx, though city health officials have not determined whether one or more of those towers is directly responsible for the outbreak. Cooling towers are boxy structures that sit on building rooftops and help control hot and cold air.
Mr. de Blasio, speaking at a news conference on Thursday, said that while officials were confident that they had identified and addressed the cause of the outbreak, the new measure was prudent. “Everyone understands that the outbreak has been limited to one community in our city,” he said, “but we are doing this out of an abundance of caution.”
The order requires that building owners and managers hire an environmental consultant to evaluate cooling towers with 14 days and, even if no contamination is found, to then disinfect and treat the tower. The only buildings that are exempt are those that can provide documentation of a similar inspection and cleaning in the past 30 days. The mayor said those who did not comply could face legal sanctions.
The New York State Health Department announced on Thursday that it would for the next several weeks provide free legionella testing of buildings with cooling towers or similar units.
Some industry experts said the scope of the city’s order was unrealistic.
Anthony DeVito, vice president of engineering for Chemical Specifics Inc. in Maspeth, Queens, which maintains and cleans 500 to 1,000 cooling towers a year in the city, said his company was already straining to keep up with demand. He said that since the outbreak, he had received a number of calls from buildings around the city.
“Think Friday at 4 o’clock in the rain looking for a taxi,” Mr. DeVito said of the surge in demand he expected. “Everybody is going to have to clean these things at the same time. It’s pushing the limits of the available companies that do this kind of work to expect to complete this in two weeks.”
Mr. DeVito said it typically took two days to clean a cooling tower using a process that involved adding cleaning agents and sanitizers to the water circulating through the unit and then shutting it down to drain the water so that workers could scrub and pressure-wash the tower.
The Real Estate Board of New York, which represents building owners, said it was reviewing the order but supported the city’s efforts to address the outbreak. “Legionnaires’ disease is a serious issue, and building owners we’ve spoken to are responding appropriately,” said John Banks, president of the board.
Mr. de Blasio said the order would affect a limited number of buildings in the city because most did not have cooling towers. “They tend to be found in bigger, more modern buildings,” he said, “but any building that does have one of these cooling towers will be subject to this order.”
Experts who have long called for more stringent regulation of the towers said the outbreak and the city’s response offered a chance to address a serious public health risk.
“The city has an opportunity to be a leader in the country with coming up with a strong regulation that could help people from becoming sick and dying,” said Patrick Racine, a member of a committee for legionellosis risk-management with the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. “Sometimes it takes events like this to get people to jump into action.”
Mr. Racine said he hoped the city could establish a comprehensive model of regulatory standards that included not just cooling towers, but water systems more broadly.
“Cooling towers are only one of many sources of the disease,” he said.
Tim Keane, a consulting engineer at Legionella Risk Management Inc., said the city’s efforts had both potential benefits and drawbacks.
“It could set an important precedent,” he said, “but there’s also the risk that they put into place a poorly executed plan that costs a lot without actually doing much for public safety.”