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In reply to the discussion: The Smog In China Should Terrify You [View all]csziggy
(34,136 posts)39. There was a poison fog in London in 1952
A little over a year ago NPR had a segment on it.
The Killer Fog of '52
Thousands Died as Poisonous Air Smothered London
by John Nielsen
December 11, 2002
Fifty years ago this month, a toxic mix of dense fog and sooty black coal smoke killed thousands of Londoners in four days. It remains the deadliest environmental episode in recorded history.
The so-called killer fog is not an especially well-remembered event, even though it changed the way the world looks at pollution. Before the incident, people in cities tended to accept pollution as a part of life. Afterward, more and more, they fought to limit the poisonous side effects of the industrial age.
<SNIP>
On the second day of the smog, Saturday, Dec. 6, 500 people died in London. When the ambulances stopped running, thousands of gasping Londoners walked through the smog to the city's hospitals.
The lips of the dying were blue. Heavy smoking and chronic exposure to pollution had already weakened the lungs of those who fell ill during the smog. Particulates and acids in the killer brew finished the job by triggering massive inflammations. In essence, the dead had suffocated.
More, including a link to the audio of the program: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=873954
Thousands Died as Poisonous Air Smothered London
by John Nielsen
December 11, 2002
Fifty years ago this month, a toxic mix of dense fog and sooty black coal smoke killed thousands of Londoners in four days. It remains the deadliest environmental episode in recorded history.
The so-called killer fog is not an especially well-remembered event, even though it changed the way the world looks at pollution. Before the incident, people in cities tended to accept pollution as a part of life. Afterward, more and more, they fought to limit the poisonous side effects of the industrial age.
<SNIP>
On the second day of the smog, Saturday, Dec. 6, 500 people died in London. When the ambulances stopped running, thousands of gasping Londoners walked through the smog to the city's hospitals.
The lips of the dying were blue. Heavy smoking and chronic exposure to pollution had already weakened the lungs of those who fell ill during the smog. Particulates and acids in the killer brew finished the job by triggering massive inflammations. In essence, the dead had suffocated.
More, including a link to the audio of the program: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=873954
More about the "Great Smog" as it was also known: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog
Similar events had happened in the early 1900s:
1930 Meuse Valley fog - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1930_Meuse_Valley_fog
1939 St. Louis smog - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_St._Louis_smog
Donora Smog of 1948 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donora_Smog_of_1948
I know as a child in Polk County, Florida, many winter mornings we had black fog. When it got down to freezing, the orange groves were heated by smudge pots that burned fuel oil and tires. Since the cold air moving over the warmer ground and water nearly always resulted in inversions, the nasty black smoke from the smudge pots mixed with the condensing water to make the black fogs.
Those fogs were so dense with particulates that when you blew or wiped your nose, your tissue would be covered with black snot. I wonder how many of the kids that grew up in those years have lung problems from breathing that crap?
It was wonderful when environmental regulations outlawed the smudge pots. Winter no longer meant nasty dark black fog mornings. Winter mornings were cleaner and the air was breathable.
Of course, now the growers spray the groves (and other crops like strawberries) with water to protect them from a freeze, drawing down the water table. Not a great solution, either.
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Absolutely. At the beginning of the industrial age London had problems because of burning coal.
jwirr
Jan 2013
#19
Very much so. And believe it or not, some big wigs here supported moving the polluting industries
freshwest
Jan 2013
#23
If you dig on the BBC radio sites somewhere you'll find a great 60th anniversary series about it
Blue_Tires
Jan 2013
#70
It's absurd to think this much pollution doesn't have an effect on the global environment
Hugabear
Jan 2013
#4
When I got a job at a steel mill in Chicago the sky was filkled with smoke.
former9thward
Jan 2013
#9
No doubt the Chinese environmental movement is gaining great strength from this
Uncle Joe
Jan 2013
#31
Well now she is already almost 10 years older...and I'll bet healthy as can be.
Auntie Bush
Jan 2013
#20
but see, that's ok because your "selfish" desire motivated you to do something Good.
BlancheSplanchnik
Jan 2013
#61
London had its "pea soup fog" in the 19th century; Los Angeles had its smog in the 20th
Hekate
Jan 2013
#32
In both cases, the price of cleaning up the air was the loss of global economic dominance
GliderGuider
Jan 2013
#35
I don't think this is the case. The sun setting on the British Empire had nothing to do with...
Hekate
Jan 2013
#41
They are a foggy city, as I understand it. "Pea soup fog" had a lot of coal smoke in it.
Hekate
Jan 2013
#40
For London at least the coal smoke was the main culprit - and went back centuries.
whopis01
Jan 2013
#66
As bad as it is in China, the smog in Donora, PA in 1948 may have been worse....
OldDem2012
Jan 2013
#50
One thing different this time, it's scientists, not clergy, predicting bad things to come
Kennah
Jan 2013
#88
This is not China's air. This is everyone's air, planetwide. Air knows no borders.
Coyotl
Jan 2013
#71