An outbreak of Legionella pneumonia originating from a cooling tower

Isozumi, Rie; Ito, Yutaka; Ito, Isao; Osawa, Makoto; Hirai, Toyohiro; Takakura, Syunji; Iinuma, Yoshitsugu; Ichiyama, Satoshi; Tateda, Kazuhiro; Yamaguchi, Keizo; Mishima, Michiaki

doi:10.1080/00365540510012143

Cited by 36 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…1), such as fountains (84,85,(172)(173)(174)(175)(176), building water systems (75,79,(177)(178)(179)(180)(181)(182)(183)(184), cooling towers (185)(186)(187)(188)(189)(190)(191)(192)(193), and whirlpool spas (194)(195)(196)(197)(198), among others. U.S. surveillance data from 2001 to 2010 have consistently included Legionella as one of the leading causes of drinking waterassociated outbreaks, accounting for 58% of cases in 2010 (199).…”

Section: Epidemiology and Diseasementioning

confidence: 99%

Current and Emerging Legionella Diagnostics for Laboratory and Outbreak Investigations

2015

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SUMMARY Legionnaires' disease (LD) is an often severe and potentially fatal form of bacterial pneumonia caused by an extensive list of Legionella species. These ubiquitous freshwater and soil inhabitants cause human respiratory disease when amplified in man-made water or cooling systems and their aerosols expose a susceptible population. Treatment of sporadic cases and rapid control of LD outbreaks benefit from swift diagnosis in concert with discriminatory bacterial typing for immediate epidemiological responses. Traditional culture and serology were instrumental in describing disease incidence early in its history; currently, diagnosis of LD relies almost solely on the urinary antigen test, which captures only the dominant species and serogroup, Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 (Lp1). This has created a diagnostic “blind spot” for LD caused by non-Lp1 strains. This review focuses on historic, current, and emerging technologies that hold promise for increasing LD diagnostic efficiency and detection rates as part of a coherent testing regimen. The importance of cooperation between epidemiologists and laboratorians for a rapid outbreak response is also illustrated in field investigations conducted by the CDC with state and local authorities. Finally, challenges facing health care professionals, building managers, and the public health community in combating LD are highlighted, and potential solutions are discussed.

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Section: Epidemiology and Diseasementioning

confidence: 99%

Current and Emerging Legionella Diagnostics for Laboratory and Outbreak Investigations

2015

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“…Hence, workers or other people near a cooling tower may be exposed to drift, may inhale aerosols containing the legionella bacteria, and may become infected. Several legionella outbreaks have been linked to cooling towers (Bentham and Broadbent, 1993;and Isozumi et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the influence of psychrometric ambient conditions on cooling tower drift deposition

Lucas

Martínez

Ramírez

et al. 2010

International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

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Water drift emitted from cooling towers is objectionable for several reasons, mainly due to human health reasons. A numerical model to study the influence of psychrometric ambient conditions on cooling tower drift deposition was developed. The mathematical model presented, consisting of two coupled sets of conservation equations for the continuous and discrete phases, was incorporated in the general purpose CFD code Fluent. Both experimental plume performance and drift deposition were employed to validate the numerical results. This study shows the influence of variables like ambient dry bulb temperature, ambient absolute humidity and droplet exit temperature from cooling tower on the drift evaporation (and therefore deposition) and on the zone affected by the cooling tower. The stronger effect detected corresponds to the ambient dry bulb temperature.When a higher ambient temperature was present, deposition was lower (evaporation was therefore higher) and the zone affected by the cooling tower was smaller. The influence of the other two variables included in the study was weaker than the one corresponding to the dry bulb ambient temperature. A high level of ambient absolute humidity increased drift deposition and also the size of the zone affected by the cooling tower. Finally, a high level of droplet exit temperature decreased deposition and increased the zone affected by the cooling tower.Keywords: Cooling towers, drift, legionaries' disease, CFD, deposition.

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“…1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Hence, workers or other persons near a cooling tower may be exposed to drift, may inhale aerosols containing the legionella bacteria, and may become infected with the illness. Several legionella outbreaks have been linked to cooling towers (Bentham and Broadbent (1993); Brown et al (1999) and Isozumi et al (2005)). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental determination of drift loss from a cooling tower with different drift eliminators using the chemical balance method

Lucas

Martínez

Viedma

2012

International Journal of Refrigeration

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The existence of cooling towers arises from the need to evacuate power to the environment from engines, refrigeration equipment and industrial processes. Water drift emitted from cooling towers is objectionable for several reasons, mainly due to human health hazards. It is common practice to fit drift eliminators to cooling towers in order to minimise water loss from the system. The presence of the drift eliminator mainly affects two aspects of cooling towers: their thermal performance and the amount of water drift loss. This paper experimentally studies the drift loss emissions from a cooling tower without drift eliminator and fitted with six different drift eliminators. Chemical Balance is the selected method and Australian Standard methodology is taken as a reference. Some modifications are proposed to reduce uncertainty by increasing the duration of the test and the number of water samples. Installation of a drift eliminator, even in the worst case, reduces the water drift level to less than half of the situation without the eliminator. The water drift losses obtained with the different drift eliminators installed at the pilot plant, from 0.0118% to 0.161%, are within the range generally reflected in the literature. Finally, a criterion for designing drift eliminators in order to optimise both the collection efficiency and the cooling tower's thermal performance is proposed. We accept all the conditions included in the journal web about transfer, copyright and originality.The manuscript material neither has been published in nor submitted to a journal previously.According to IJR's focus, research deals on condensation and air conditioning. Accent has been placed on experimental details. We hope the originals will fulfil all your requirements.We look forward to your reply. Yours sincerely, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 Manuel Lucas AbstractThe existence of cooling towers arises from the need to evacuate power to the environment from engines, refrigeration equipment and industrial processes. Water drift emitted from cooling towers is objectionable for several reasons, mainly due to human health hazards. It is common practice to fit drift eliminators to cooling towers in order to minimise water loss from the system. The presence of the drift eliminator mainly affects two aspects of cooling towers: their thermal performance and the amount of water drift loss. This paper experimentally studies the drift loss emissions from a cooling tower without drift eliminator and fitted with six different drift eliminators.Chemical Balance is the selected method and Australian Standard methodology is taken as a reference. Some modifications are proposed to reduce uncertainty by increasing the duration of the test and the number of water samples. Installation of a drift eliminator, even in the worst ca...

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An outbreak of Legionella pneumonia originating from a cooling tower

Abstract: We report 2 cases of Legionella pneumonia in individuals who were exposed to aerosols during maintenance of a cooling tower at a waste processing plant. This report documents the first known occupation-related outbreak of Legionella pneumonia in Japan.

Cited by 36 publications

References 8 publications

Current and Emerging Legionella Diagnostics for Laboratory and Outbreak Investigations

Current and Emerging Legionella Diagnostics for Laboratory and Outbreak Investigations

On the influence of psychrometric ambient conditions on cooling tower drift deposition

Experimental determination of drift loss from a cooling tower with different drift eliminators using the chemical balance method

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