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Ruth --
You are right about origin of Legionnaire's
Disease. However, at a national laboratory I used to work at, one of the reasons
for restricting access to the now-torn-down decrepit cooling tower was that it
had a potential for Legionella, the organism that causes the disease. I believe
they checked for this regularly. It was the workers on and around the cooling
tower who were at risk in this case, not the public.
Janet Westbrook
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2001 10:04
AM
Subject: Re: Norm's final words on dead
fish
Floyd
Flanigan wrote
>As to the legionaire's issue:The desease got it's
name from an American Legion Post down wind from a cooling tower which bred
the bacteria which causes the desease.Several of those whom frequented the
post contracted the desease and died , hence the name.<
I don't
believe that is correct. As I recall, the disease (a respiratory
infection like flu) struck a number of American Legion members who were
staying in a hotel in Philadellphia at a Legion convention. The cause
was mold and bacteria in a ventilating/air conditioning system that hadn't
been cleaned for a very long time. As I recall, it had nothing whatever
to do with cooling towers. The effluent from a cooling tower, even if it
were loaded with bacteria, would be so dispersed by the time it reached any
concentration of people that it would be unlikely to cause any disease.
Ruth
Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.
ruthweiner@aol.com
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