cooling towers Archives

March 24, 2026 zacherlaw 0 Comments

Can Air Conditioners Cause Legionnaires’ Disease? The Truth About a Common Myth

A Recent Article Raises Alarm—But Misses the Science A March 2026 health article warns that poorly maintained air conditioners can harbor bacteria, including Legionella, and suggests that “unclean AC units can cause Legionnaires’ disease” . At first glance, this sounds plausible. After all, Legionella is a waterborne bacterium, and HVAC systems are often associated—at least in the public mind—with outbreaks. But this claim, as presented, is misleading and scientifically inaccurate when applied to ordinary air conditioners. And that distinction matters—not just for public understanding, but for sound public policy. The Science: How Legionnaires’ Disease Actually Occurs Legionnaires’ disease is not…

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…

September 8, 2025 zacherlaw 0 Comments

The Hunt for a Killer: Manhattan’sLegionnaires’ Outbreak and What It Reveals

“The hunt was on.” That’s how The New York Times iframed the search for thesource of the deadly Legionnaires’ disease outbreak now unfolding in Manhattan.It is an apt metaphor, because when Legionella pneumophila bacteria surface in acity like New York, the chase resembles a high-stakes detective story. The culpritsare invisible, their habitat is hidden, and the cost of delay is measured in lives. A Race Against Time The article describes how health officials, engineers, and epidemiologists havefanned out across Manhattan, scouring cooling towers, plumbing systems, androoftop reservoirs. Their mission: identify the contaminated water system seedingthe outbreak. Each day matters. Legionnaires’…

August 12, 2025 zacherlaw 0 Comments

Legionnaires’ in Harlem: When Public Health Fails the Same Neighborhoods Again and Again

It’s happening again. Another outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in New York City — this time in central Harlem, where 73 people have fallen ill and three people have died, according to the NYC Department of Health as of August 7, 2025. Officials believe the likely culprit is a cooling tower — those big rooftop structures that help regulate temperature in buildings but can become deadly if they aren’t properly cleaned and maintained. When they’re contaminated with Legionella bacteria, they can spew mist into the air, carrying an invisible, lethal threat into the streets below. But if you’ve followed Legionnaires’ outbreaks…

August 6, 2025 zacherlaw 0 Comments

When the Mist Turns Deadly: A Legionnaires’ Outbreak in Harlem Brings Back Old Warnings

It’s the middle of summer in New York City, and the hum of air conditioners is a familiar soundtrack. But in central Harlem, that sound comes with a warning. As of August 5, at least 58 people have contracted Legionnaires’ disease — and two have died — in an outbreak believed to be tied to a contaminated cooling tower. Again. The city’s health department is testing towers in the area encompassing the zip codes 10027, 10030, 10035, 10037, and 10039, and bordering communities. So far, 11 cooling towers have tested positive for Legionella pneumophila. The city’s health department is urging…

March 31, 2025 zacherlaw 0 Comments

It’s Not the Environment, Stupid!

New England appears to be an epicenter for Legionnaires’ disease. To many,it might not make sense that an area given to cold weather could produce so manypeople contracting the disease. The reality, though, is that Legionnaires’ diseasedoes not need a warm climate such as Florida to grow. Rather, the disease needs anenvironment often made by human negligence. More specifically, the disease requires a warm environment frequentlyoccurring in a building’s plumbing system. A recent example might include thestate health department’s investigation of a case at the Beth Israel DeaconessHospital in Needham, Massachusetts. In that instance, a patient may havecontracted Legionnaires’ resulting…

March 30, 2022 zacherlaw 0 Comments

Proposed New Brunswick Cooling Tower Legislation

In response to a 2019 legionnaires’ disease outbreak in Moncton where fifteen people were hospitalized, the New Brunswick government has introduced legislation to reduce the risk of legionnaires’ disease in cooling towers. This bill was introduced by Health Minister Dorothy Shephard and would require a registry and associated maintenance and testing of cooling towers. The registry is meant to help quickly locate the towers for testing in the event of future outbreaks. Public Health officials have said that regular testing and maintenance can reduce the risk of bacteria; however, to this point there was nothing requiring such work in New…

November 4, 2020 zacherlaw 0 Comments

Legionella Revisited: The Case of the Cooling Tower

Like the last case we revisited, this post highlights a past client’s case. Our last post highlighted the danger of hot tubs. This post highlights the threat posed by cooling towers – a large, commercial building’s water cooling system. In July and August 2015, there was an outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease in the Bronx that claimed 12 lives and sickened at least 128 people. The outbreak caused widespread concern and weeks of uncertainty among residents. Thanks to the hard work of epidemiologists and investigators, the source of the outbreak was identified: a cooling tower in the area. In cooling tower…

November 13, 2018 zacherlaw 0 Comments

English v US Approach to Legionella Control

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…

November 5, 2018 zacherlaw 0 Comments

Legionella is Ubiquitous

Every case involving Legionnaires’ disease that this office has been involved in has always had the defense attorney arguing that the bacteria causing Legionnaires’ disease is ubiquitous (found everywhere). By this the defense attorneys mean that because the bacteria legionella can be found naturally in nature, their clients should not be liable to pay money damages to my clients. What the defense attorneys don’t tell you is that although legionella bacteria may be found in water everywhere, it only causes disease such as Legionnaire’s disease when the property owner does not properly maintain the water system. Failure to properly maintain…