Regulating Cooling Towers to Prevent Outbreaks of Legionnaires’ Disease

Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreaks and Cooling Towers, New York City, New York, USA

The incidence of Legionnaires' disease in the United States has been increasing since 2000. Outbreaks and clusters are associated with decorative, recreational, domestic, and industrial water systems, with the largest outbreaks being caused by cooling towers. Since 2006, 6 community-associated Legionnaires' disease outbreaks have occurred in New York City, resulting in 213 cases and 18 deaths. ...

Guidance on investigating cases, clusters and outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease

Epidemiological investigation and case-control study: a Legionnaires' disease outbreak associated with cooling towers in Warstein, Germany, August-September 2013.

Between 1 August and 6 September 2013, an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease (LD) with 159 suspected cases occurred in Warstein, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The outbreak consisted of 78 laboratory-confirmed cases of LD, including one fatality, with a case fatality rate of 1%. Legionella pneumophila, serogroup 1, subtype Knoxville, sequence type 345, was identified as the epidemic strain. A ...

Proximity of the home to a cooling tower and risk of non-outbreak Legionnaires' disease.

OBJECTIVE To study the source of non-outbreak legionnaires' disease, particularly the role of cooling towers, by comparing the locations of patients' homes in relation to the location of cooling towers. DESIGN Retrospective, descriptive study of a case series of patients with legionnaires' disease ill between 1978 and 1986 and, for comparison, a case series of patients with lung cancer. A pro...

MINLP Optimization of Cooling Towers

This paper presents a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model for the optimal design of mechanical counter-flow cooling towers, subjected to standard design constraints. The objective function consists of the minimization of the total annual cost, which includes the capital cost of the cooling tower (that depends on the filling material and the air flowrate) and the operating cost (th...