Two construction workers who claim they contracted Legionnaires' disease while working at or near Harlem Hospital Center are suing contractors they allege failed to safeguard water cooling towers at the building against contamination by the bacteria that causes the illness.

Duane Headley and Nunzio Quinto , both from Nassau County in Long Island, allege in court papers they contracted Legionnaires’ disease while working construction sites at or near Harlem Hospital Center, in the Central Harlem community at the center of a deadly weekslong outbreak.

"This medical tragedy... was a completely preventable outbreak," the plaintiffs’ attorney Ben Crump told reporters Wednesday in Harlem. "When corporations cut corners, tragedies like this happen."

The general contractors named in the comp

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