outbreak Archives

January 11, 2021 zacherlaw 0 Comments

Legionnaires Disease Outbreak in Portland Apartment Complex Continues to Grow

On Tuesday, those who live at the Rosemont Court Apartments in Portland were told they needed to evacuate the building. Furthermore since then, nearly 100 residents of the building have been temporarily moved into motels until the building’s water system and plumbing can be properly cleaned and determined to be safe. As a result, another four people are presumed to have Legionnaires disease based on new symptoms, the county health department said. The first symptoms to appear are usually flu-like (fever, tiredness, muscle aches, and headache). Signs of a serious Legionella lung infection include cough and chest pain. As of Thursday, Multnomah…

January 7, 2021 zacherlaw 0 Comments

Outbreak of Legionnaires Disease in A Portland Apartment Complex

The health department confirmed that experts have linked the outbreak to the apartments water system. People can contract Legionnaires disease when they breathe in very small droplets of water contaminated with the Legionella bacteria. Multnomah County Health Officer Jennifer Vines spoke to the press about this incident. She informed them that the plumbing has since been shut off in the building due to the outbreak. Vines also said the health department is working to find out whether water supplied to other nearby properties is also affected. As a result, the county is working to clean the building’s plumbing system and remove any remaining…

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…

October 25, 2018 zacherlaw 0 Comments

New York City Admits Still Does Not Know Where All Cooling Towers Are

New York City Council enacted a law in 2015 after a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the Bronx. The law requires that every cooling tower in New York City be identified, registered and inspected on a regular basis. The city has admitted recently that it is not sure it has found all cooling towers, three years after the legislation was passed (the city health department uses experts on the street and satellite imagery to find cooling towers). This failure to even identify all cooling towers takes on added significance after one remembers that there have been two recent outbreaks…

October 24, 2018 zacherlaw 0 Comments

Cooling Towers as a Source of Legionnaires’ Disease

This office has had numerous inquiries regarding persons contracting Legionnaires’ disease. Often times the person does not know where they acquired the disease. Unfortunately, many times the person acquired the disease from a cooling tower. The cooling tower need not be in the vicinity of the person who acquired the disease, or even have been identified by health authorities. Consequently, the person may not know that a cooling tower has caused him or her to get sick. These cases are considered sporadic in nature. On the other hand, when a cooling tower has been identified as the source, as in…

October 17, 2018 zacherlaw 0 Comments

New York State Regulation of Legionella-A Real Step Forward

As promised, this blog will cover US legislative attempts to control the bacteria legionella that causes Legionnaires’ disease. While many states have requirements as to the amount of residual chlorine that must be present in spas, no state has legislation to curtail legionella in cooling towers than New York. Unfortunately, the New York legislation does not cover the potable water system (showers, faucets, holding tanks, etc.) in a building, or any water feature such as a lobby fountain. This is completely different from the approach taken in the UK as explained in an earlier blog, which is national in nature…

October 15, 2018 zacherlaw 0 Comments

South Dakota Investigation and the Health Department

Another case of Legionnaires’ disease has occurred in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, bringing the total to 15 including one death since July 2018. All of the victims either lived or traveled in the city. The CDC has completed its environmental assessment by taking water samples from cooling towers and water features such as decorative fountains. Final results have not been released. What is interesting is the local health department’s comment that often a single source for the outbreak is not found. That is not the experience of this law firm. The most recent example is the outbreak associated with the…

October 12, 2018 zacherlaw 0 Comments

US Approach to Controlling Legionnaires’ disease

There is no national legislation controlling the propagation of the legionella bacteria in buildings, cooling towers, or jacuzzis in the United States. In fact, there is only one state, New York, that has any statewide legislation to control legionella growth in the state’s cooling towers. Various states have levels of residual chlorine that must be in spas. This haphazard and inadequate approach is very different from that taken by the United Kingdom as indicated in a previous blog. It is time therefore, for Congress to address a national problem and enact national legislation to control the increasing incidence of Legionnaires’…

October 10, 2018 zacherlaw 0 Comments

Moral Blameworthiness

Without giving away too much about how I try a case, my firm’s focus has always been about the behavior of the party where my client contracted Legionnaires’ disease. All too often Judges and defense attorneys focus on the extent of the damages, i.e. how long the client was in the hospital and whether the client is still suffering from any residue from contracting the disease. This is a false emphasis and only one part of the equation as to how much the jury verdict should be. Rather, evidence such as a hotel where the client stayed not having a…

October 8, 2018 zacherlaw 0 Comments

New Washington Heights Outbreak

A second cluster of Washington Heights residents have been hospitalized because of Legionnaires’ disease. The prior outbreak in the same geographic area in July of this year resulted in numerous persons being hospitalized and one person dying. The New York City Health Department has implicated a cooling tower at the Sugar Hill Project as the source of the second outbreak. The department has directed the Sugar Hill Project to disinfect its cooling tower for the second time. This second direction by the health department points up a major weakness in the current legislative scheme. Many of the cooling towers that…