Legionnaires disease

Press, 27 August 1979, Page 16

Legionnaires disease

Sir, — The reported discovery of the cause of this deadly disease poses the question as to just how long man will continue to create his own malignancies and consequent premature deaths by his “scientific” improvement and so-called mastery of nature, and by his pseudoknowledgeable interference and adulteration of soil, food, water, air, and, in short, his universal life and support system, the general environment. Hence the rapidly deteriorating psychophysical level of man in this advanced technological age. There in Chicago is a classical example of flagrant violation of the above principles, for the air breathed in and out, used and reused by hundreds of people day in, day out, in a

closed ill-ventilated building, was continually reheated and recycled. This pernicious practice allegedly gave rise to a pneumonic type of malignant bacteria in the diseased atmosphere of the premises, causing the deaths of 26 people. — Yours, etc., W. J. COLLINS. I August 24, 1979.