American Lung Association
The American Lung Association is a voluntary health organization whose mission is to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease through education, advocacy and research.[1]
Abbreviation
Lung Association
1904 (as National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis)
Non-profit
Preventing lung disease and promoting lung health
32,000
Harold P. Wimmer
- National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (1904 (founding)–1918)
- National Tuberculosis Association (1918–1968)
- National Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease Association (1968–1973)
- American Lung Association (since 1973)
History[edit]
1904- 1918; Founding[edit]
The organization was founded in 1904 to fight tuberculosis (TB) as the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (NASPT) by Edward Livingston Trudeau,[2] Robert Hall Babcock, Henry Martyn Hall, Lawrence Flick, and S. Adolphus Knopf. Earlier in 1892, Flick had founded the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, the world's first society dedicated to the preventing TB. In 1907, the Lung Association began their Christmas Seal campaign to raise money for a small TB sanatorium in Delaware. Emily Bissell, a Red Cross volunteer at the time, created holiday seals to sell at the post office for a penny a piece. By the end of her fundraising campaign, she had raised more than ten times the amount needed to save the sanatorium, and the tradition of Christmas Seals was launched.[3]
1973-2018[edit]
The association is a defender of the Clean Air Act.[5]
In October 2018, the association launched its school-based initiative, "Yoga Power", a program designed to increase awareness of the importance of lung health, at Woodward Elementary School in Delaware, Ohio.[6]
Notable participants[edit]
The National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis held their ninth annual meeting in Washington, D.C., May 8 and 9, 1913. In attendance were Association President Homer Folks, Honorary Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, Vice Presidents Robert Hall Babcock, Sir William Osler and Edward R. Baldwin, Treasurer William H. Baldwin, Secretary Henry Barton Jacobs. Notable life members included Andrew Carnegie, Henry C. Frick, Mrs. H. Knickerbocker, Louis Marshall, Francis E. May, Cyrus H. McCormick, Henry Phipps, John D. Rockefeller, Rodman Wanamaker, Felix M. Warburg. The association members recommended a public health committee be formed by The National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis and be officially sanctioned by the United States House of Representatives. In addition, they adopted the double red cross emblem formally as the symbol for the association and its fight against tuberculosis. The National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis executive offices were located at 105 East 22nd Street, New York, New York.[13] Henry Martyn Hall of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is one of the ten original founders and was honored at the 50th Anniversary Annual Meeting of the National Tuberculosis Association at Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1954.[14] U.S. President Grover Cleveland was an honorary vice president from 1905 to 1908; U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was an honorary vice president from 1905 to 1919.[15]