NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, March 16, 2001

Authorities investigated 10 cases of pneumonia among workers at the Cleveland Casting Plant in the Brook Park complex, focusing on a cooling tower after two subcontractors who were working on the tower contracted pneumonia.

Two Ford workers with Legionnaire's remained hospitalized in intensive care.

A Ford employee who had worked near the tower died of pneumonia last Friday, adding to fears the tower was the source of the bacteria. A large tank provided steam for the 48-year-old plant's heating system, and the area was clouded in mist.

Health officials were analyzing water samples taken Tuesday. Plant managers ordered the tank to be disinfected.

"Now we've got some classical exposures. We've got several people working in and around the cooling tower, which had been down for maintenance," Tim Horgan, Cuyahoga County health commissioner, told Thursday's Cleveland Plain Dealer.

A Ford spokesman said the decision to close the plant was made after the third case of Legionnaire's was confirmed. The plant, which makes cast iron parts for engines manufactured in North America, has 2,500 employees.

Legionnaire's disease, a form of bacterial pneumonia, was first recognized in an outbreak at a convention of the American Legion in Philadelphia in 1976. Thirty-four people died of the disease in that outbreak.

The legionella bacteria can be found in air conditioning systems, water fountains and showers, but most people that inhale mist from contaminated water do not develop serious illness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are about 18,000 cases of Legionnaire's a year, but many are reported as pneumonia or flu of undetermined origin.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.