New York lawmakers are now trying to better protect residents from the deadly legionnaires’ disease by increasing regulations and inspections of cooling towers after two outbreaks of the infection over the last two summers and a raft of new lawsuits. Legionnaires’ disease is a serious pneumonia caused by a bacterium called legionella. It often comes from large air-conditioning systems, like those used in hotels, hospitals and high-rise buildings, because the cooling towers contain water to remove heat.
If not well maintained, the liquid can foster the bacteria, which can then be swept into fans and circulated through the air. The upkeep to stop legionnaires’ could become especially important as global temperatures rise due to the climate crisis, causing greater reliance on air conditioning, experts say. They have to be done rigorously all the time.
Can you substantially reduce the risk of outbreaks and even individual disease illnesses? Yes.” In August 2025 in New York’s Harlem neighborhood, seven people died and more than 100 became ill during a legionnaires’ outbreak. This summer, the Upper East Side saw 92 cases of legionnaires’ disease, 79 hospitalizations and seven deaths.
The city’s health department staff collected samples from more than 180 cooling towers and found that 59 tested positive for the bacterium, according to the city. Sites included the Guggenheim Museum, apartment buildings, a Whole Foods market and a private school. Toronto and central Ohio also recently experienced legionnaires’ outbreaks.
Victims of the 2025 Harlem outbreak and their family members recently filed four lawsuits against the city, NYC Health + hospitals and contractors responsible for maintaining the cooling towers. In New York City, the health department’s testing for legionella in water in cooling towers decreased dramatically before the 2025 outbreak, according to the Gothamist. During the first six months of 2017, the first year of inspections, the agency inspected 3,190 towers; during the same period in 2025, the city inspected 1,167 towers.
A health department spokesperson told the Gothamist that the decrease happened because of a staffing shortage. In May, the city announced it would allocate an additional $13m in fiscal year 2027 for cooling tower inspections – which includes funding to hire 23 water ecologists – and require building owners to test for the bacterium every 31 days in which the cooling towers are operating, the strictest requirement in the country, according to the city. After the latest outbreak, New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, approved legislation that requires biannual cooling tower certifications and increased penalties from $10,000 to $12,500 for any violations that result in a serious illness or death.
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