November 11, 2025 zacherlaw 0 Comments

Norwegian Cruise Line Warns Passengers of Legionnaires’ Disease Cases

Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) has issued an urgent notice to current and former passengers of the Norwegian Epic following reports that two travelers were diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease after recent voyages aboard the 4,100-passenger ship. According to a passenger email shared with Cruise Radio, the alert—sent on November 4—was distributed to guests currently sailing on the ship’s 12-night Mediterranean itinerary from Rome to Lisbon, as well as to passengers who had recently completed earlier segments of the same voyage. NCL’s notice stated that it is unclear whether the guests were exposed aboard the ship or elsewhere. The company is now…

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Legionella Pneumophila Bacteria. 3D illustration
November 11, 2025 zacherlaw 0 Comments

Marshall County Declares Legionnaires’ Outbreak Over — but the Source Remains a Mystery

November 7, 2025 — Marshall County, Iowa After weeks of investigation and dozens of confirmed cases, Marshall County Public Health (MCPH) has officially declared the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak over. But despite extensive testing and cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), officials say the precise source of the bacteria was never found. The outbreak, which began in early September, sickened 74 people and led to two deaths. Health officials identified 12 business centers in north-central Marshalltown as likely locations where exposure may have occurred — all of which contained cooling towers, a common source of Legionella bacteria.…

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November 3, 2025 zacherlaw 0 Comments

Cooling Towers and Data Centers

Why Cooling Towers Are Used in AI-Driven Data Centers—and Why That Matters for Public Health As the world races to harness the power of artificial intelligence, the physical infrastructure behind AI is expanding at an unprecedented rate. Massive data centers—home to the servers powering models like GPT-5—are being built across the country. But with these high-performance computing facilities comes a lesser-known risk: the potential for outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease due to the use of cooling towers. High Heat, High Stakes: Why Cooling Towers? AI models require enormous computational power. Training a large language model or powering real-time AI tools demands…

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