John Mullen of IAPMO on building water management standards

Good afternoon.

How are you doing?

Good afternoon.

My name is John Mullen, and I'm here today to speak in favor of enhanced remediation efforts to combat the growth of Legionella, the bacteria that caused Legionnaire's disease.

I serve as director of technical services for the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, also known as IATMO.

IATMO supports the implementation of stronger laws and regulations to combat the growth and spread of bacteria.

The recent outbreak in New York City's Upper East Side with over 90 cases and at least 11 deaths following last year's deadly outbreak in Harlem clearly demonstrates the effort undertaken by

and a city to mitigate the bacteria has not been sufficient.

This is likely attributable to in part the fact that the building water systems can serve as environmental opportunistic pathogens to proliferate, and aspects have not been fully sufficient addressed in other current mitigations.

As the City Council considers additional steps to alleviate the building outbreaks, IAPMO encourages the city to use best practices available to lead Janela remediation and building water systems.

This includes the full adoption of the ASHRAE Standard 188 and ASHRAE Standard Guideline 12.

Additionally, the ASSE Series 12000, particularly the Standard 12061 and Standard 12080,

these establish unique training programs to educate the pipe trades, craftspeople, employers, building water management teams, and other construction maintenance personnel on how to effectively, safely in their environments with potential exposure to these pathogens.

These evidence-based practices have been designated by the National Standard Institute for Canada and also the SCC.

We strongly encourage passing stronger legislation with fully adopting these standards.

The importance of having building water management plans cannot be overstated.

Having staff certified with these ASC standards can regularly test water outlets, and it can help prevent future outbreaks and take some of the burden off the health inspectors.

So I am here to provide any additional information to the staff and committee you might have on this situation.

Thank you for your time and consideration today.

Thank you very much.

And if you have more testimony, you can actually submit it at testimony at council.nyc.

You have 72 hours.

You can do that.

So if you want to give us more information, that's fine.

All right.

Thank you very much.