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As the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene tries to identify the source of the Legionnaires’ outbreak on the Upper East Side, elected officials and residents are raising questions about the enforcement of a new law seeking to curb the spread of the disease.
Almost two dozen people on the Upper East Side have been infected since health officials confirmed the first two cases July 2.
Legionnaires’ disease is a severe form of pneumonia caused by the Legionella bacterium. It spreads through airborne water droplets, not by drinking water or through person-to-person spread. Many of the outbreaks in New York City are caused by water vapor spewing from rooftop cooling towers.
For years the city has tried to stem Legionnaires’ outbreaks during the summer months when building owners turn on their cooling towers, which can generate mist containing the Legionella bacterium. The disease has been a perennial concern in the Bronx and Harlem, because of the high density of tall buildings with cooling towers and the high concentration of chronic disease, a risk factor for Legionnaires’. Following a summer outbreak in Harlem the New York City Council passed legislation last October that requires property owners to test cooling towers for the Legionella microbes.
The new citywide law took effect May 8 with limited compliance, the City Council speaker said. New York has almost 6,000 registered cooling towers.
“We know for a fact that many buildings did not comply with that City Council law, which is inexcusable,” City Council Speaker Julie Menin told a crowd of constituents at a town hall meeting Tuesday night at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue. “One of the many questions we have about the Health Department is, how many buildings did not comply? Let’s start with looking at those buildings.”
The source of the Legionnaires’ outbreak has not been identified, something Menin called of “great concern to the community,” citing the large number of seniors who live in the affected neighborhoods of Carnegie Hill and Yorkville and are particularly vulnerable to the severe form of pneumonia. She also called for the city to disinfect all cooling towers in the area under investigation, a request she reiterated in a letter sent on Wednesday to the health commissioner.
Officials are urging New Yorkers who live or work in ZIP codes 10028, 10128, and 10075 to contact a healthcare provider if they develop any flu-like symptoms.
Health officials at the town hall meeting had counted 23 cases and 17 hospitalizations as of Monday. Though no deaths have been reported, some patients are in critical condition in the intensive care unit, officials said.
Health officials expect the case count to increase
Health Department Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin expects the case count to climb as testing expands, he told town hall participants.
The city has begun testing cooling towers in the affected neighborhoods and launched community outreach by passing out flyers and holding town hall meetings. Health Department officials said it has rallied more than 100 staff members to investigate the source of the outbreak.
As of Monday, the Health Department had collected samples from 139 cooling towers. The remaining operating towers will be sampled by Wednesday.
Health officials also plan on releasing the addresses of all buildings whose cooling towers test positive for Legionella during an initial screening process. Buildings that test positive will be ordered to immediately drain, clean, and disinfect their cooling towers.
Health officials testified last September that they needed more inspectors to strengthen oversight. When fully staffed, the department will have about 56 scientists and water ecologists to oversee inspections.
In New York City, building owners are required to register cooling towers. Building owners are also required to test the water in the cooling tower for Legionnella and submit the samples, which are logged in a Health Department database.
The new law requires building owners to submit samples every 31 days — down from 90 days — when they are using the cooling towers, which is usually during the summer.
The new law also increased fines, which are now between $2,000 and $4,000.
Healthbeat Analysis Reveals Few Building Owners Have Submitted Water Samples
A Healthbeat analysis of New York City data uploaded to a registration portal offers a compliance snapshot of cooling towers in the city. In some cases, a building owner has included water test dates for Legionella.
Since May 8, the day the legislation took effect, 13.65% of building owners have submitted samples. Also, 110 towers in Upper East Side ZIP codes have submitted samples on or after May 8 — 17.92% of all towers that submitted samples during that time period.
Bruce Y. Lee, a professor at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy, said it was incumbent upon officials to ensure the city’s cooling systems are up to snuff, because there isn’t a vaccine for Legionnaires’.
“If (the laws) are not enforced, then the only time you actually find out that there’s a problem is when you start having people getting sick and potentially dying from it,” Lee said. “The individual can’t do too much to prevent this type of infection.”
The Health Department recognizes there isn’t a vaccine or medicine available to prevent Legionnaire’s. So it says the best way to avoid the disease is through the proper maintenance of water systems where Legionella may grow.
Martin told reporters after the Tuesday town hall meeting that “it’s too early to tell if this new law is taking effect.”
Fining building owners is not “really what we see as being our biggest tool or lever,” he added.
When asked how many building owners have been fined for noncompliance, Martin didn’t answer.
Data analysis by Sophie Hayssen
Trenton Daniel is a reporter covering public health in New York for Healthbeat. Contact Trenton at tdaniel@healthbeat.org or on the messaging app Signal at trentondaniel.88.
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