Cooling tower at outdoor
April 20, 2026 zacherlaw 0 Comments

A growing Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in London is increasingly pointing toward a familiar and well-documented source: cooling towers. According to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), eight confirmed cases have been identified with identical bacterial sequence types, with 13 additional cases under investigation. This combination—genetic matching across cases and absence of a single identified exposure site—is highly consistent with aerosol dispersion from one or more contaminated cooling towers. The Key Clue: Identical Biological Strain Public health investigators rarely get a clearer signal than this: All confirmed cases share the same strain of Legionella Individuals were exposed across different locations in…

November 13, 2018 zacherlaw 0 Comments

As previously reported in a blog posted October 12, 2018, the US approach to controlling legionella is different from the United Kingdom. The UK approach is national in nature and very strict. Two recent examples include a leisure center in Walton-on-the-Naze being criminally prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive ( UK government agency responsible for the encouragement, regulation and enforcement of workplace health, safety and welfare) for an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease two years ago. Another case involved a care home being fined 600,000 pounds (approximately $777,000.00) after pleading guilty to the death of a 90 year old who died…

October 9, 2018 zacherlaw 0 Comments

As mentioned in a previous blog, the United Kingdom takes a very different approach to controlling Legionnaires’ disease. Unlike the United States, the UK has a national law, the Health and Safety Act of 1974 as amended, whereby owners of premises can be criminally prosecuted if in violation of the Act. The Act requires a regular risk assessment to identify any areas in a building such as a hotel that has or could develop the legionella bacteria. Outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease result in a full investigation as well as a possible criminal prosecution. Greater detail will be provided about the…