# air conditioning causing sickness
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 2, 2019, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421 "2019-07-02T21:57:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2019, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/1 "2019-07-02T21:57:24Z")
My ex, not the brightest card in the deck, claims that me using my air conditioner will give me pneumonia. Or at least a cold. Most people get colds in the summer because of this.
I have read that most people get sick in the winter because of the dryness of the air and mostly indoors.
Most of you are smarter than me, give me your opinions on this, thanks.
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### Author:  [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2019, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/2 "2019-07-02T22:06:39Z")
Perhaps she heard about [Legionnaires disease](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Philadelphia_Legionnaires%27_disease_outbreak) and is paranoid it might be spread by _any_ air conditioning system.
> [@](#):
>
> In January 1977, the Legionella bacterium was finally identified and isolated and was found to be breeding in the cooling tower of the hotel’s air conditioning system,[6] which then spread it through the building.
If that’s the case, I don’t think she needs to worry because the very next sentence in that Wikipedia article is:
> [@](#):
>
> This finding prompted new regulations worldwide for climate control systems.
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### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2019, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/3 "2019-07-02T22:18:14Z")
Does it have to be limited to Legionnaires? Aren’t there lots of other bacteria, viruses and fungi that can grow in an air conditioner?
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### Author:  [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)
#### Post date: [July 2, 2019, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/4 "2019-07-02T23:10:55Z")
Legionnaires was the first thing that came to mind just because it was the most famous case of a disease being spread by an air conditioner. But I would assume that the changes to air conditioning systems mandated after the Legionnaires outbreak would prevent or at least reduce the spread of other things, too, although admittedly I don’t know what those changes were.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2019, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/5 "2019-07-03T00:41:04Z")
Yeah, I see lots of people with pneumonia every summer…
As for Legionnaires, it was caused by a commercial AC system that used a cooling tower (as have most of the outbreaks). Home AC systems don’t have these towers, and have never been implicated in the disease, to the best of my knowledge.
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### Author:  [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2019, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/6 "2019-07-03T01:09:45Z")
Yeah, remember that big Chicago heatwave back in 1995 where almost 800 people died from using air conditioning?
Oh wait, no, they died from NOT using air conditioning, that’s how it was.
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### Author:  [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2019, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/7 "2019-07-03T01:22:05Z")
Not directly related but the OP made me think of the Korean superstition about not A/C per se but electric fans:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan\_death](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death)
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2019, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/8 "2019-07-03T01:40:38Z")
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> Yeah, I see lots of people with pneumonia every summer…
>
> As for Legionnaires, it was caused by a commercial AC system that used a cooling tower (as have most of the outbreaks). Home AC systems don’t have these towers, and have never been implicated in the disease, to the best of my knowledge.
Some home A/C systems were built with “[swamp cooler](https://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/heating-and-cooling/swamp-cooler.htm)” towers (my next door neighbors had one in the 1950s) but I don’t think your ex was thinking about that.
If you have a window air conditioner, and the air from it smells musty, clean the filters. No more fungus, bacteria, mold spores, etc.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2019, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/9 "2019-07-03T03:32:33Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#):
>
> Some home A/C systems were built with “[swamp cooler](https://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/heating-and-cooling/swamp-cooler.htm)” towers (my next door neighbors had one in the 1950s) but I don’t think your ex was thinking about that.
>
> If you have a window air conditioner, and the air from it smells musty, clean the filters. No more fungus, bacteria, mold spores, etc.
I live in Arizona. Of course I know what a Swamp Cooler is.
But even out here, nobody would call that an A/C.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2019, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/10 "2019-07-03T04:40:56Z")
The idea that using air conditioning causes sickness goes back literally decades, I have books written back in the 1960s where characters talk about it as if it was fact.
As far as I’ve ever heard there’s never been any evidence of it being _actually_ true, barring the rare case of there being actual contamination in the machinery. It’s just a medical urban legend.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2019, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/11 "2019-07-03T04:43:46Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#):
>
> My ex, not the brightest card in the deck, claims that me using my air conditioner will give me pneumonia. Or at least a cold. Most people get colds in the summer because of this.
> I have read that most people get sick in the winter because of the dryness of the air and mostly indoors.
> Most of you are smarter than me, give me your opinions on this, thanks.
1. Pneumonia, and colds, are caused by an infection of germs. Temperature has almost nothing to do with that.
2. people get sick more in the winter because they are around other people who are sick. And more closely around, since they’re mostly indoors.
3. So that’s all nonsense.
4)Yes, your ex is obviously not the brightest. But you are spending time time giving consideration to his nonsense. How bright does that make you?
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2019, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/12 "2019-07-03T05:05:50Z")
Yep, it’s the germs.
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### Author:  [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2019, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/13 "2019-07-03T12:53:12Z")
I heard some idiot at the airport telling her friend “I’m a natural girl” and how because of that, AC makes her sick.
This is in the same category as fan death. Going outside with wet hair. Drafts. Etc.
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### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2019, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/14 "2019-07-03T13:44:44Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#):
>
> 1. Pneumonia, and colds, are caused by an infection of germs. Temperature has almost nothing to do with that.
> 2. people get sick more in the winter because they are around other people who are sick. And more closely around, since they’re mostly indoors.
> 3. So that’s all nonsense.
> 4)Yes, your ex is obviously not the brightest. But you are spending time time giving consideration to his nonsense. How bright does that make you?
It makes me brighter than him, as I disagreed with it. And hes my **ex**.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2019, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/15 "2019-07-03T14:05:19Z")
Going from a warm area into a cold area can cause your nose to run. It’s a reaction, not a sign that you’re getting a cold. But if someone’s in the process of getting a cold, it can be conflated.
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### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2019, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/16 "2019-07-03T14:10:27Z")
If A/C gave you pneumonia, places like Texas would be huge pits of pneumonia in the summer, which of course they aren’t.
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### Author:  [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2019, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/17 "2019-07-27T14:02:03Z")
Due to my bedbug problem, I had slept at my ex’s for three days. It was not a good sleep as he likes to have the dvd blasting (it helps him sleep) and its a twin bed, not meant for two people who weight 300 pounds combined.
So this morning I got a nasty cold, and of course, he claims its because of my air conditioner.
I am pretty sure lack of sleep for a while knocks down your immune system which causes people to get sick, its happened to me numerous times.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2019, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/18 "2019-07-27T14:08:41Z")
Air Conditioners _do_ cause people harm.
[Cite.](https://www.villagevoice.com/2011/07/06/how-often-do-air-conditioners-fall-out-of-nyc-windows-and-kill-people/)
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2019, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/19 "2019-07-27T14:23:31Z")
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> I live in Arizona. Of course I know what a Swamp Cooler is.
> But even out here, nobody would call that an A/C.
I’ve seen A/C used that way in Europe (in various languages) and never swamp cooler. YMMV.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [July 27, 2019, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/air-conditioning-causing-sickness/836421/20 "2019-07-27T15:14:07Z")
I have the A/C on in late spring through early fall. I haven’t had a cold in decades, and never had pneumonia.
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