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One of Auckland's fanciest skyscrapers has been cleared of bacteria that killed three Christchurch people in 2005 and an Auckland person last year.
High counts of the potentially lethal legionella were found in cooling towers on the DLA Phillips Fox tower and a nearby office block. The second building has not yet been named.
The property manager of the DHL Phillips Fox tower, Angus McNaughton, said high counts of the bacteria were found in the water cooling system a week before Christmas. "It's common [to have high counts] at this time of year because of the heat and humidity," said McNaughton, of Kiwi Income Properties Ltd. "We go through a monthly testing regime on all of our buildings. We discovered a high count and notified [the] authorities."
Tenants were advised and urged to seek medical attention over the holiday break if they felt ill. If the bacteria is inhaled, sickness can rage from a mild respiratory illness called pontiac fever, to a form of pneumonia called legionnaires' disease. Legionnaires' was blamed for the death of one person in the Auckland coastal suburb of Beachlands last year. In 2005 three people died in Christchurch.
"It's like any bacteria and tries to breed," McNaughton said. "There was a little rusty flange, so we replaced it and we've had a clean bill of health.
"One of the issues people don't understand is because it was found in the cooling tower it doesn't mean it's in the building. The water tower is on the roof and the air intake is some 22m away, so the likelihood, our contractor said, of someone becoming sick is virtually nil."
