New research suggests that bacteria in tobacco can lead to infection - even just by handling the tobacco products. The researcher was able to isolate and grow some strains of bacteria in a petri dish, and suspects that there are up to a thousand bacterial species in tobacco products. The team found over a hundred bacterial matches in their research, including: "Campylobacter, which can cause food poisoning and Guillain-Barre Syndrome; Clostridium, which causes food poisoning and pneumonias; Corynebacterium, also associated with pneumonias and other diseases; E. coli; Klebsiella, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, all of which are associated not only with pneumonia but also with urinary tract infections; and a number of Staphylococcus species that underlie the most common and serious hospital-associated infections."