This story is originally appeared on VOX and is part Air conditioning cooperation.
Air conditioners work a superstructure of this warm summer, from these petite window units to massive alternating current towers, which serve tightly packed residential buildings in immense cities. And although they bring relief of chilly air, these devices also create conditions for hazardous bacteria to multiply and spread.
One particularly nasty disease transmitted by bacteria is currently spreading in Modern York using these huge cooling units as a vector: Legionnaire disease. Bacterial pneumonia, which is usually repeated every summer in the largest city of the USA, got sick Over 100 people and killed five In a growing explosion.
If you do not live in Modern York or the northeast, you may never have heard of legionnaire, but this niche threat to public health may not be niche for longer.
Climate change helps to make Legionnaire’s disease more ample in places where it already exists and create potential to move to novel places where the population may not be used to it. Cities in the north -east and in the Middle West, where warmer weather meets with older infrastructure, I reported more cases In recent years. Lately, Legionella The bacteria were discovered In the water system of the Care Home in Dearborn, Michigan – one of the states, along with Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Wisconsinwhich they have I have seen more activities in the last few years.
Everyone can earn on Legionnaire’s disease, inhaling compact drops containing bacteria and symptoms – headache, shortness of breath – appears within a few days. Can cause severe lung infection, with The mortality is about 10 percent.
While healthier people often experience few symptoms, the more sensitive – children, elderly people, pregnant people and people with a damaged immune system – are a stern danger of the disease. About 5,000 people die in the United States every year due to legionnaire, many of them Life in a low -income housing with antiquated cooling equipment, in which bacteria can grow and spread more easily.
Legionnaire disease is a microcosm of the impact of climate change on low -income community. Because warmer temperatures facilitate the spread of the disease, the most socially exposed populations will pay the most significant price.
Slip of Legionnaire, climate change and economic differences
Legionnaire’s disease was first documented After an extremely aggressive outbreak of pneumonia during the American Legion conference in Philadelphia in 1976. Soon, the Centers for Disease and Prevention scientists confirmed the cause of the mysterious disease: previously unknown bacteria that were properly named Legionella. LegionellaUnfortunately, it is everywhere – in streams, lakes and waterworks throughout the country.
But it usually occurs in such low concentrations and is so distant that it does not pose a threat to people. Usually.
Now the city’s health officials have found bacteria in immense cooling tanks that serve massive residential buildings in Modern York, especially in Harlem. Cooling tanks are ideal places for legionnaire for growth and spread. They are full of stagnation, toasty water, which is more hospitable for bacteria growth. Like the paddle cooler, the systems transform toasty stagnant water into chilly air for the inhabitants of apartments. They can spray fogs loaded with bacteria to open air, scattering them through the surrounding air, where it can enter the lungs when they inhale. According to Environmental Protection Agency80 percent of Legionnaire cases are associated with drinking water systems.