A Legionnaires’ disease in Southern California last year was almost certainly caused by a Disneyland cooling tower.
In testimony to an appeals board judge at the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an Orange County health official said tests showed high levels of Legionella bacteria in two of Disneyland’s cooling towers at the time of the disease outbreak.
Dr. Matthew Zahn said a Disneyland cooling tower was ‘likely’ the source which sickened 22 people.
The vast majority of these had visited the park in and around October 2017 when the outbreak was discovered.
Zain said he could not be certain with 100% accuracy that Disneyland was the source without more testing.
Disney has continued to dispute the claim it was responsible.
Zain said Disneyland Cooling Tower 4 had very high levels of bacteria when tested during the outbreak.
When it was shut down and cleaned the number of new cases seemed to stop.
When Disney was notified of the outbreak it shut down two cooling towers.
The theme park operator was fined $33,000 for failing to properly clean the cooling towers.
Three Disney workers were among the 22 infected.
