The City Council approved legislation Thursday to ramp up testing requirements of building cooling towers for Legionnaires’ Disease, after an outbreak in Harlem over the summer sickened 114 people, resulting in 90 hospitalizations and 7 deaths.

Intro 1390-A would require building owners to test for the presence of Legionella microbes at least every month during warmer weather months when the cooling towers are in use.

The bill further requires that all such testing be performed by, or under the supervision of, a “qualified” professional. 3

Cooling towers at Harlem Hospital and another city building currently under construction at 40 W. 137th St. — which will be the future home of the city Public Health Lab — were considered among the sources of the outbreak, a major embarrassme

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