Mycobacterium aviumwas recovered from tobacco, cigarette paper, and cigarettefilters.M. aviumcould also be recovered from cigarettefilters after the cigarettes had been smoked. (1995)

DisseminatedMycobacterium aviuminfection is prevalent in patients with AIDS, affecting as many as 40% of patients with advanced disease (4). PulmonaryM. aviuminfection occurs in patients with chronic lung disease (9). Recently it was shown that DNAfingerprint patterns ofM. aviumisolates recovered from AIDS patients were identical to patterns from isolates recovered from water samples to which the patients were exposed (6). Although water and soil are thought to be likely sources of M. avium in AIDS patients (6) and patients with chronic lung disease (9), other possible sources of M. avium have not been excluded. In a study of 19 patients with pulmonary alveolar proteinosis,M. aviumwas recovered from bronchoalveolar lavage samplesin8(57%)of14smokersand0(0%)of5nonsmokers(8). Accordingly, we sought to determine whetherM. aviumcould be isolated from cigarettes. Fourbrandsofcigarettesweresampled:BensonandHedges 100 Lights (Benson and Hedges, Richmond, Va.), Marlboro Light100s(PhilipMorris,Inc.,Richmond,Va.),Winston(R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Winston-Salem, N.C.), and Camel Lights (R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.). Packs of cigarettes were purchasedatthreedifferenttimesovera3-monthperiod,twice in Blacksburg, Va., and once in New Market, Va., to ensure that different batches of cigarettes were sampled. Two unsmoked cigarettes from each pack were analyzed. In addition, two cigarettes from each pack were smoked and thefilters and paper surrounding the filter were analyzed. Measures were taken to ensure that the only source of mycobacteria was the cigarettes themselves. Packages were opened with sterile gloves in a sterilized laminar flow hood. Cigarettes were smoked by employing a sterilized vacuum apparatus. With a sterilized razor blade, the cigarettes were dissected in a sterile field and separated into the following fractions: (1) tobacco, (2) paper enclosing tobacco, (3)filter, and (4) paper surrounding filter. The filter and both paper fractions were each weighed following transfer into preweighed sterilized containers and suspended in 5 ml of sterile 0.0068 M phosphate buffer containing 0.85% (wt/vol) NaCl, 0.01% (wt/vol) gelatin, and 0.05%Tween80.Thetobaccowastransferredtoapreweighed sterile container, weighed, and suspended in 10 ml of the same buffer. By using a sterile glass rod in the sterile field, the fractions were pulverized and then shaken at 120 oscillations perminfor2hatroom temperature. The material was separated from the liquid extract by filtration through sterilized sintered glass filter holders (Millipore Corporation, Bedford, Mass.) and collected in plastic centrifuge tubes, and the volume was measured. The filtered extract was centrifuged at 5,000 3 g for 20 min at 48C, the supernatant liquid was discarded, and the pellet was suspended in 1 ml of the sterile extraction buffer. A 0.1-ml sample of each extract was spread to dryness on each of five TTC agar medium plates (3). To demonstrate that there was no contamination of the samples andtoconfirmthesterilityofallsolutionsandtubes,cigarettefree negative controls were analyzed. To measure the possible inhibition ofM. aviumcolony formation by cigarette extracts,