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. 1989 Oct;103(2):285–292. doi: 10.1017/s0950268800030648

Legionnaires' disease and the sick-building syndrome.

M O'Mahony 1, A Lakhani 1, A Stephens 1, J G Wallace 1, E R Youngs 1, D Harper 1
PMCID: PMC2249498  PMID: 2680548

Abstract

In October 1985, six cases of legionnaires' disease were associated with a police headquarters building. Four were amongst staff who worked in or visited the communications wing of the headquarters and two cases occurred in the local community. A case-control study implicated the operations room of the communications wing as the main area associated with infection. This wing was air-conditioned and smoke tracer studies showed that drift from the exhaust as well as from the base of the cooling tower entered the main air-intake which serviced the air-conditioning system. Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 subgroup pontiac was isolated from water and sludge in the cooling tower pond. Contaminated drift from the top of the cooling tower was probably responsible for the two community cases. An additional discovery was that symptoms suggestive of the sick-building syndrome were associated with working in this wing.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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