Smoking and Legionnaire's Disease

This memo from the National Resources Defense Council relates the discovery of a strong correlation between smoking behavior and those who died of Legionnaire's Disease the 1976 breakout of the disease at a hotel. A telephone survey of the family members of the deceased revealed that 81 percent of the people who died in the incident were smokers. The author of the memo is Marc Reisner, who also authored the book Cadillac Desert.

Legionnaires’ disease is a form of pneumonia caused by the bacteria Legionella pneumophila. The first recognized mass outbreak occurred at an American Legion (a war veteran's association) convention at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA) in 1976. 221 people attended the convention. The disease struck over 180, and 34 people died. The disease is believed to have originated in contaminated water used to cool the air in the hotel's air conditioning system. After this outbreak, the disease was named Legionnaires’ disease, or legionellosis.

The high rate of the disease among smokers in this instance may be due to a high incidence of smoking among ex-service members at this particular time, since smoking was long promoted in the U.S. military by the inclusion of cigarettes in servicemembers rations.

Title	 Interviews with Relatives and Friends of Victims of 'Legionnaire's Disease ' Date	 19761214 (December 14, 1976) Type	 Memorandum, List Bates	 1003727317/7318 Collection	 Philip Morris Pages 2 URL:http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/ngq08e00

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