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Legionnaires’ disease is a major threat to public health. Solutions to deal with this problem are usually siloed and not entirely effective. This paper aims to model the information requirements of legionella-safe cooling towers in the era of Industry 4.0.

A year-long design science research was conducted in a cooling tower producer for heavy industries. The project started with a bibliometric analysis and literature review of legionella in cooling towers. Goal modeling techniques are then used to identify the requirements for digital transformation.

The improvement of legionella prevention, detection and outbreak response in digitally enabled cooling tower should involve different stakeholders. Digital twins and blockchain are disruptive technologies that can transform the cooling tower industry.

For theory, this study revises the most recent advances in legionella protection. Legionella-safe systems must be prepared to anticipate, monitor and immediate alert in case of an outbreak. For practice, this paper presents a distributed and digital architecture for cooling tower safety. However, technology is only a part of outbreak management solutions, requiring trustworthy conditions and real-time communication among stakeholders.

Bacteria were unknown to man until the invention of the optical microscope and were first observed, along with Protozoa, by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in 1675. However, they were not scientifically studied during the following 200 years and indeed as a science, Bacteriology is only a little more than 100 years old. Pasteur and Koch laid the basis of the modern science, and the late 1800s saw the discovery, description, and formal classification of most of the species of bacteria recognized to‐day. It is a very rare event now to discover a ‘new’ bacterium: the aetiological agent of Legionnaires' Disease, Legionella pneumophila, is, however, one such example, much in the current news.

Discusses the factors which affect how quickly Legionella bacteria grow: water throughput, water temperature, and chemical water treatments. Examines management criteria for control of these factors – training, water quality testing, record keeping and maintenance – as well as inspection procedures for cooling systems. Concludes that control of microbiological water quality depends on knowledge of building and systems as well as clear procedures and records.

Legionnaires’ Disease is a comparatively new disease with the first cases identified in the United States of America in 1976, where a congress of Legionnaires met in a large hotel and subsequently a number fell ill and 29 died. Within the United Kingdom there has been a number of outbreaks (‘outbreak’ means identification of two or more people having the disease). Hospitals are no exception, being the source of eight outbreaks in the UK (between 1979 and 1984). People attending and visiting hospitals include those most vulnerable to the disease, the old and those suffering from chronic illnesses; thus any hospital‐associated outbreak is the subject of local and national concern. The Stafford outbreak in 1985 affected more people than in any previous hospital outbreak, causing the death of 22 patients. The scale and severity of the incident and its association with a new hospital was the subject of a public inquiry, the first to be held into an outbreak of Legionnaires' Disease in this country.

Lists proposed regulations for governing indoor air quality (IAQ) in the USA. Outlines various health problems caused by IAQ, making a distinction between building‐related illness and sick building syndrome. Discusses factors which affect IAQ.

Outlines the history and uses of copper tubing and its position in the modern building industry. Discusses its various designations and tempers, its strength and ductility, corrosion resistance, compatibility with other plumbing materials, suitability for use with potable water, its potential as a bacteriostat, its biofouling resistance and its availability in a range of sizes. Notes its position as a guaranteed British Standard quality product, and assesses the impact of Water Bylaws, Building Regulations and the British Standard Code of Practice on Water Supply on its use in building today. Explores other current and future applications of copper tube and extols its properties for health.

In a full blaze of comings and goings, it is unnecessary to remind ourselves that the holiday season is upon us; mass travel to faraway places. The media have for months, all through the winter, been extolling a surfeit of romantic areas of the world, exspecially on television; of colourful scenes, exotic beauties, brilliant sunshine everywhere; travel mostly by air as so‐called package tours — holidays for the masses! The most popular areas are countries of the Mediterranean littoral, from Israel to Spain, North Africa, the Adriatic, but of recent years, much farhter afield, India, South‐east Asia and increasingly to the USA.

This study aims to study the distribution characteristics of antibiotic resistance in direct-eating food and analysis of Citrobacter freundii genome and pathogenicity. Residual antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the environment severely threaten human health and the ecological environment. The diseases caused by foodborne pathogenic bacteria are increasing daily, and the enhancement of antibiotic resistance of pathogenic bacteria poses many difficulties in the treatment of disease.

In this study, six fresh fruits and vegetable samples were selected for isolation and identification of culturable bacteria and analysis of antibiotic resistance. The whole genome of Citrobacter freundii isolated from cucumber was sequenced and analyzed by Oxford Nanopore sequencing.

The results show that 270 strains of bacteria were identified in 6 samples. From 12 samples of direct food, 2 kinds of probiotics and 10 kinds of opportunistic pathogens were screened. The proportion of Citrobacter freundii screened from cucumber was significantly higher than that from other samples, and it showed resistance to a variety of antibiotics. Whole genome sequencing showed that Citrobacter freundii was composed of a circular chromosome containing signal peptides, transmembrane proteins and transporters that could induce antibiotic efflux, indicating that Citrobacter freundii had strong adaptability to the environment. The detection of genes encoding carbohydrate active enzymes is more beneficial to the growth and reproduction of Citrobacter freundii in crops. A total of 29 kinds of ARGs were detected in Citrobacter freundii, mainly conferring resistance to fluoroquinolones, aminoglycosides, carbapenem, cephalosporins and macrolides. The main mechanisms are the change in antibiotic targets and efflux pumps, the change in cell permeability and the inactivation of antibiotics and the detection of virulence factors and ARGs, further indicating the serious risk to human health.

The detection of genomic islands and prophages increases the risk of horizontal transfer of virulence factors and ARGs, which spreads the drug resistance of bacteria and pathogenic bacteria more widely.