Virginia Villa of Hotel Trades Council supports Intro 1094 Legionella reporting
Virginia Villa of the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council supports Intro 1094. She describes a summer hotel case where Legionella levels were below the 1,000 CFU reporting threshold, so workers and guests were not notified and remediation only followed arbitration; she says lowering the reporting threshold to 10 CFU would improve transparency and protect workers and guests.
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Good morning, everyone.
My name is Virginia Villa, and I'm the Deputy Research Director at the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council.
I'm here to testify in support of Intro 1094 today, which would be a crucial improvement to our city's public health and safety protocols.
Earlier this summer, HTC members were put in a precarious situation when a hotel was found to have high levels of Legionella, but they were not notified until the union got involved.
Because the levels did not meet the reporting threshold of 1,000 colony-forming units per milliliter, there was no requirement for reporting or remediation.
Workers and guests were subsequently left in the dark.
Only after arbitration did the hotel agree to remediation, and still then the test showed that the hotel's Legionella density had increased four times.
or fold to over 700 colony forming units per milliliter.
Under city law, immediate action and reporting to the city is only required if the rates exceed 1,000 of those colony forming units.
Because the levels at this hotel were below that threshold, the law only required the building to increase or change the chemical.
In the system and perform a visual inspection.
And there was nothing else the city could do in this case.
Under the current rules, workers and guests were left vulnerable and uninformed to the potential health crisis.
The current system in place to protect workers and guests had its hands tied by these numbers.
This legislation would establish a reporting requirement for results of 10 colony forming units per milliliter or more.
In those instances, the building owner would have to report it to the DOHMH and take corrective action immediately.
Without management having a legal obligation to notify workers or guests of any potential risk, workers with pre-existing respiratory conditions and weakened immune systems were potentially put at risk.
Strong health and safety standards are necessary for workers'well-being and for guests to have a comfortable and enjoyable stay in our city.
As Chair Shulman noted earlier, climate change is changing our city, it's changing our world, and regulations need to be able to keep up with that.
We need to...
Learn from the past tragedies, and we urge the council to take action to increase transparency by passing Chair Shulman's bill.
Reducing the reporting threshold will make our city safer and healthier.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
very much really appreciate you testifying today.