Tag: Legionnaires’ disease

  • State Says Cooling Towers Are To Blame For Legionnaires’ Outbreak At Disneyland Last Year

    State Says Cooling Towers Are To Blame For Legionnaires’ Outbreak At Disneyland Last Year

    Orange County, California was ground zero to one of the nations largest Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks last year. 22 people fell ill and one person died.

    Local health officials were never able to find the exact cause of the infections, but they believed the outbreak was connected to Disneyland since 19 out of the 22 people affected had visited the park.

    Back in March, the park was fined more than $33,000 for failing to properly clean cooling equipment linked to the outbreak and for other related violations by The California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, according to a citation issued by Cal-OSHA and obtained by the LA Times.

    Cal-OSHA only investigates hazards that endanger workers, but they began looking into the Legionnaires’ cause because three Disneyland employees fell ill during the outbreak and two of them required hospitalization. The findings do not address how the 19 non-employees were infected.

    “The employer did not follow the manufacturer’s cooling tower start-up maintenance and water treatment procedure to control outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease,” Cal-OSHA said in the citation. “As a result, two employees suffered serious illness requiring hospitalization of more than 24 hours.”

    Disneyland denies the claims stating that the source of the outbreak could have been elsewhere in Anaheim and they have appealed the citations. In October the company will make their case at a hearing before a three-member appeals.

    “We strongly object to Cal-OSHA’s allegation that our cooling towers caused any illness, since the source of the outbreak has never been scientifically determined,” Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown said in a statement.

    In August 2017, people who had visited Disneyland or spent time in Anaheim began to report feeling ill. They were diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease, a lung infection caused by breathing in water droplets containing bacteria known as Legionella.

    Orange County health officials have stated that Disneyland’s cooling towers have been free of Legionella since November, and there is currently no risk to the public.

    Disney said it had learned about “increased Legionnaires’ disease cases in Anaheim” from county health officials Oct. 27. “We conducted a review and learned that two cooling towers had elevated levels of Legionella bacteria,” Dr. Pamela Hymel, chief medical officer for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said in a statement at the time. “These towers were treated with chemicals that destroy the bacteria and are currently shut down.”

    Most Legionnaires’ outbreaks are linked to cooling towers, part of an air conditioning system that releases mist. The illness does not spread from person to person, so people who become sick each have to inhale the contaminated droplets. Without proper cleaning, cooling towers can create the perfect environment for Legionella to grow. The cooling towers require regular disinfecting to ensure they are not developing Legionella, experts say.

    Health officials never formally identified the cooling towers as the source, and Disneyland officials have said that the test results don’t definitively prove that the towers were to blame.

    Brown said there are several cooling towers nearby that are outside the park and were never tested and pointed out that three people who fell sick had not visited the park, including the one person who died.

    The Cal-OSHA investigation found that Disneyland had not adequately cleaned the towers, which caused high levels of bacteria to grow.

    One of the towers had been drained of water when it was taken offline at the beginning of 2017, but bacteria thrived in stagnant water still in the pipes, Cal-OSHA investigators said in a written report.

    Disneyland was “not effectively performing weekly bacteria inspections” at that time, so water containing Legionella was sent back into both cooling towers when they were brought online in August 2017, according to a Cal-OSHA document.

    “The employer failed to ensure equipment in service (was) kept clean, in sanitary condition, inspected and maintained as recommended by the manufacturer, as not to give rise to employee harmful exposure to Legionella pneumophila and other airborne bacteria,” the Cal-OSHA citation said.

    The three workers who contracted Legionnaires’ disease — a cook, an operating engineer and a laborer — came within 50 to 200 feet of the cooling towers, a Cal-OSHA document said.

    Disneyland typically tests its cooling towers quarterly, according to theme park records that were obtained through a public records request from the Orange County public health department.

    But the cooling towers weren’t tested for Legionella last year while they were offline, the document shows. The first tests in 2017 came in late September, when the lab reports showed high levels of the bacteria.

    The bulk of the fines levied against Disneyland were for not cleaning the towers properly. The agency also fined Disneyland for not reporting all the employee illnesses to Cal-OSHA.

    “We have continually cooperated with Cal-OSHA’s various investigations, and fully complied with its reporting requirements with respect to our employees,” Brown said in the statement.

  • Disneyland shuts down 2 cooling towers after Legionnaires’ disease sickens park visitors

    Disneyland has shut down two bacteria-contaminated cooling towers after Orange County health officials discovered several cases of Legionnaires’ disease in people who had visited the Anaheim theme park, authorities said.

    Twelve cases of the bacteria-caused illness were discovered about three weeks ago among people who had spent time in Anaheim and included nine people who had visited Disneyland in September before developing the illness, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency. Their ages ranged from 52 to 94. The remaining three were Orange County residents who did not visit the park but lived or traveled in Anaheim.




    Ten were hospitalized and one person “with additional health issues” died, according to health officials. That person did not visit Disneyland. Legionnaires’ is a severe lung infection caused by exposure to contaminated water or mist. Authorities said they have not tied any other cases of Legionnaires’ to Anaheim since September.

    “There is no known ongoing risk associated with this outbreak,” the healthcare agency said in a statement.

    The towers are in a backstage area near the New Orleans Square Train Station, each more than 100 feet from areas accessible to guests, a Disneyland Resort spokeswoman said Friday. A Disneyland employee is among those who fell ill with the disease.

    “On Oct. 27, we learned from the Orange County Health Care Agency of increased Legionnaires’ disease cases in Anaheim. We conducted a review and learned that two cooling towers had elevated levels of Legionella bacteria,” Dr. Pamela Hymel, chief medical officer for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said in a statement Friday. “These towers were treated with chemicals that destroy the bacteria and are currently shut down.”

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified county authorities about three weeks ago of several cases of the disease among people who had traveled to Orange County in September. County epidemiologists discovered that a cluster of people diagnosed with the disease had recently visited, lived or worked in Anaheim and contacted Disney after learning that several of them had gone to the theme park.

    According to the health agency, on Nov. 3 Disney reported that routine testing had detected elevated levels of Legionella in two cooling towers a month earlier, and the towers had been disinfected. Disney took the towers out of service on Nov. 1, performed more testing and disinfection, and brought them back into service on Nov. 5.

    Disney took the towers out of service again on Tuesday in advance of an order the health agency issued the following day requiring they remain down until test results verify they are free from Legionella contamination.

    The towers had been turned off on Nov. 1 before Disney learned that Legionella had been detected, Disneyland Resort spokeswoman Suzi Brown said. “The only reason they were turned back on was as part of the further disinfection process.”

    The county health agency has also alerted healthcare providers to look for Legionnaires’ disease in anyone who may have become ill after visiting Anaheim or Disneyland before Nov. 7.

    It takes two to 10 days for symptoms of Legionnaires’ to appear.

    The disease is caused by Legionella bacteria that grow in water and can spread when small droplets get into the air and people breathe them in, according to the CDC. Outbreaks are often traced to hot tubs, decorative fountains, cooling towers and large air-conditioning systems that emit water vapor into the air. Legionnaires’ is not spread person to person.

    The illness can be treated with antibiotics and hospital care, but about 1 in 10 people who get Legionnaires’ disease die from the infection. Most at risk are people older than 50 with weakened immune systems or chronic lung diseases.

    Orange County has recorded more than 55 cases of the disease this year and has seen the number of cases jump in recent years. A similar upward trend has been seen nationally and elsewhere in Southern California, according to the healthcare agency, though what’s causing that is unclear.