The New York City Health Department confirmed on Tuesday that the Co-Op City residential complex in Bronx has been contaminated by the bacteria that cause Legionnaire's Disease, the NY Daily News reported.
According to health officials, traces of legionella bacteria were discovered in the buildings' towers used to cool their electrical and heating systems. Dr. Stephen Morse from the Mailan Columbia School of Public Health explained that the bacteria may have grown on the walls of the cooling towers' containers.
The number of Legionnaire's disease cases in the city rose to 12 in December of last year. An analysis on the patients revealed that eight of them reside in Co-Op City.
Sharon Balter of the city's Health Department explained that the disease can be contracted by inhaling or drinking aerosols or water contaminated by the bacteria, according to NBC New York. Symptoms of the disease include muscle pains, fever and chills.
"Those mists can be dispersed by a variety of things, by showers, spas, and commonly by cooling towers, which give off a lot of evaporative mist," she said in a statement. "It cannot be spread person to person."
After the discovery of the bacteria, the health department coordinated with the complex's management firm RiverBay Corporation to have the cooling towers temporarily shut down.
In response, the firm hired a chemical treatment company for $200,000 to disinfect the cooling towers.
Both RiverBay and the Health Department emphasized that the water pipes or network the buildings' cooling towers use are different from those used for showering and drinking.
To prove this, Jeffrey Buss, Co-Op City's board attorney drank a glass of water taken from one of the complex's faucets.
"There is legionella in the cooling water," he said during a meeting on Tuesday. "It's not in the drinking water here."
Residents of Co-Op City haven't been evacuated from the complex despite the presence of the bacteria. However, the Health Department noted that it is working with RiverBay Corporation to solve the matter, DNA Info reported.
"The Health Department is concerned about this sudden increase in Legionnaire's disease in the Bronx," the agency said in a statement. "We are conducting a thorough investigation and working closely with RiverBay Corporation to minimize the public risk and to prevent future cases.
