Council law boosts testing for Legionnaires’ disease in `cooling towers’

The City Council approved legislation Thursday to ramp up testing requirements of building cooling towers for Legionnaires’ Disease, after an outbreak in Harlem over the summer sickened 114 people, resulting in 90 hospitalizations and 7 deaths.

Intro 1390-A would require building owners to test for the presence of Legionella microbes at least every month during warmer weather months when the cooling towers are in use.

The bill further requires that all such testing be performed by, or under the supervision of, a “qualified” professional.

Cooling towers at Harlem Hospital and another city building currently under construction at 40 W. 137th St. — which will be the future home of the city Public Health Lab — were considered among the sources of the outbreak, a major embarrassment for city government.

Numerous negligence lawsuits have been filed against city entities and construction firms involved in maintaining the cooling towers, with the backing of civil rights lawyer Ben Crump and Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network.

“Legionnaires is preventable. We have a responsibility to make sure our city takes every possible precaution,” said Lynn Schulman, the Council’s Health Committee chairperson said before the Council vote.

“Under this bill, building owners will be required to test their cooling towers at least once a month while they’re in use, with all testing performed or supervised by qualified professionals, to ensure accuracy and compliance.”

“This recent legionnaires outbreak in Harlem reminded us how quickly legionella bacteria can spread when cooling towers are not properly inspected or maintained.”

The bill mirrors changes announced by Mayor Eric Adams and acting Health Commissioner Dr. Michelle Morse.

Those revisions also order building owners to test for Legionella at least every 30 days during months when cooling towers are used, instead of the prior 90-day requirement.

The department also has hired more of its own inspectors to monitor the cooling towers and building plumbing systems after staffing dropped in previous years.

A more comprehensive bill requiring building owners to test for Legionella in their water systems — not just cooling towers — was not considered by the Council.