Mayor Eric Adams seeks expanded Health Department capacity to inspect cooling towers and tougher penalties for property owners after a Harlem Legionnaires' outbreak that killed seven people and sickened over a hundred. The Health Department concluded its investigation and identified contaminated cooling towers at Harlem Hospital and a nearby city-run construction site as sources. Both contaminated sites have been cleaned and remediated. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for an independent probe questioning whether city agencies followed inspection and enforcement standards. Legionnaires' disease is pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria that can grow in stagnant water and spread via contaminated water vapors. New York City building owners must register cooling towers and monitor water quality three times weekly under current Health Department rules.
The Adams administration wants to expand the Health Department's capacity to inspect cooling towers atop buildings after an outbreak in Harlem-stemming from bacteria found in towers at two city-run properties-killed seven people. Mayor Eric Adams wants to expand the city's capacity to inspect buildings for Legionnaires' disease, and strengthen penalties for property owners who fail to comply with cooling tower regulations, after an outbreak in Harlem killed seven people this summer and sickened more than a hundred others.
The Health Department on Friday said it had concluded its investigation into the cluster of Harlem cases, which officials said stemmed from cooling towers contaminated with Legionella bacteria at two city-run properties in the neighborhood (as the Daily News first reported): Harlem Hospital at 506 Lenox Ave., and a nearby construction site overseen by the NYC Economic Development Corporation at 40 West 137th St. Both sites have since been cleaned and remediated, officials said.
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