Last week, Mayor de Blasio admitted the city didn’t know the locations of cooling towers, nor did it inspect them. He promised by week’s end to draft legislation to make building owners register the towers and have the city begin inspecting all of them.
By Saturday the legislation was still being drafted, and no one could say how many more inspectors will be needed to take on the new task. The law is expected to be introduced on Wednesday.
“New York City is the first city to propose standards for cooling tower inspections. Our inspectors’ job is to protect the public's health, and if charged with cooling tower inspections, they will ensure that property owners comply with the law and disinfect their cooling towers regularly. This is an important step we can take to further protect the health of New Yorkers, and it shows we are leading the way in preventing Legionnaires',” said Health Department spokesman Levi Fishman.
Already inspectors have their hands full. In fiscal year 2015, which ended last month, they opened more than 37,000 cases that wound up before the city Office of Administrative Trials & Hearings for a litany of violations.
5 comments:
Did anyone see this...
http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20150807/concourse-village/teachers-death-alone-not-enough-spark-legionnaires-probe-mayor-says
And think about how Mayor Big Slow and his even slower health commish have been spinning this outbreak by callously implying that all the fatalities had prior maladies, which is akin to how the criminal health insurance industry before the affordable care act were denying service to their customers who had pre-existing conditions. The first one to die from contracting the disease was a healthy athletic white guy who was a grade school teacher who worked in that area, yet the city saw no need to investigate and take preventive action because not enough people were getting sick.
I wonder why they decided to, let's say ride it out for 4 months and not reveal the first victim, aptly described as the canary in the coalmine. Could it be that there are plans to build affordable/mostly market rate housing in the South Bronx? Well, that's going to be put on hiatus now. And for more hyperbolic theory, maybe this is a way to force out existing tenants out of rent control or section 8 apts. there, so greedy landlords and soulless city planners could advance gentrification in the area. But people aren't that evil right?
What's truly insane about this negligence is that when we had the anthrax scare after 9/11,I think the city called the cdc to assist us in stopping it. It's amazing that big bad Bill didn't feel the need to do the same when the margins of sick people got larger therefore justifying the need to call them. This guy has betrayed the 27 per cent that believed and voted for him. But at least people from out of town thinks he's doing a good job.
WOW - new law, that will fix it.
Another government agency
another budget item
more useless bureaucrats
How do we pay for this?
Regulations, Permits, inspection fees, fines $$$$
Great for property owners & businesses - NOT.
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: we're from the Government, and we're here to help. "
Strange that no mention has been made about the fact that several different cooling towers were contaminated. I can't recall such a scenario before. Also I saw a news article about a legionairs case in Rockland county. It seems possible, even likely that something is spreading the bacteria from one tower to another. Could be insects, birds or some equipment. Another possibility is that the bacteria involed is mutated and survives on or in insects when it previously had not. Other possibility is the city water had or has an issue.
I think everyone needs to be aware of a fact, the bacteria is in just about all water, including drinking water. It only blossoms or mutiplies when the temperature is right, somewhere above 90 degrees and below 125 degrees. This is why it is VERY DANGEROUS to recommend that people lower their water heater temperature to save energy. Any water that sits between 90 and 120 degrees will likely grow legionella. If someone breathes in water droplets or atomized water from an nice warm shower or an evaporative cooling tower that has been at those temperatures for any length of time is likely being exposed to the disease. After we have a heat wave the temperature of evaporative cooling towers goes up to that magic number and we have a lot of the bacteria if the towers are not chemically treated.
The part that bothers me is that we are not being told the complete story. Did the victims breathe in the water from these towers while walking along a sidewalk or did they breath it in from inside a building where the HVAC air duct system ingested the contaminated water vapor and then distributed it throughout parts of the building interior? Or did they injest it while taking a shower. Have the domestic hot water systems been tested for the bacteria?
This all typical of government and an incompetent news media, we just get real shitty information. If anyone bothered to look there has been enormous amounts of information published on this topic, mostly by plumbing engineers.
The city doesn't know which hand is wiping its own ass.
NYC is never on top of health or safety issues until there is an outbreak or a crisis.
Mayor De Blah Blah is medicated for something. His repetitive tardiness because of oversleeping is an indicator.
His real estate buddies are running New York. We have a mayor in absentia.
Had....and I thought Bloomberg was bad? Bring back Mayor Mike.
Post a Comment