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AMERICAN CLAY

On July 27, 1976 members of the American Legion gathered at the Bellevue Strattford Hotel in Philadelphia, PA to celebrate the American Bicentennial. Within two days, veterans were falling ill with an unidentified ailment with symptoms similar to pneumonia. By the end of the event, more than 220 attendees had been treated and 34 eventually died. A six month investigation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally uncovered the culprit - a bacteria breeding in a hotel cooling tower.

I grew up in New Jersey less than 60 miles from Philadelphia. I vividly recall my excitement for the 1976 American Freedom Train and the Bicentennial summer, along with my fear over what would later be named Legionnaires Disease. Tere was great debate at my school about whether a scheduled field trip to a Philadelphia museum would be canceled. My mother tried to reassure me that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, but I knew something was wrong. Tis incident also had a profound effect on Carol Baumgartel, founder of American Clay. During a recent interview conducted in the LEED Platinum certified home of a good friend she told me how it forever altered her thinking and initiated a heightened sensitivity to the presence of toxic substances commonly found in the average indoor environment.