The Killer Fog of December 1952 - London England

[Sequoia]

I had never heard of this until I read a gem of a book called, "The Pessimists Guide to History"

...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.

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.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=873954

Anyone here, or someone you know go through this?

[ailsagirl]

1. No one I knew-- but I read about it in "The People's Almanac"

sometime back. Pretty scary

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

2. A lot of people forget air pollution- period.

Fifty years ago plenty of places in this country looked worse than China.

I didn't know anybody from this particular incident, no. I know lots of people whose life was cut short, I'm willing to bet, from living in LA back in the forties and fifties.

[DarthDem]

3. Wow - - Terrifying

I consider myself fairly well-read and knowledgable about Europe, but I had never heard of this. Quite scary; all the more so because there was nothing that could be done about it, apparently, until it naturally dissipated.

[opihimoimoi]

4. I was in London in 58...no one said shit...Very interesting as we approach the

wholesale use of "clean coal"

[Stuart G]

5. I read about this before...and it resulted in a number of changes..

In Chicago...a few years later..all coal burning home furnaces were outlawed..All homeowners and apartment owners had to switch to oil or gas heat...Illinois being a coal producing state...soft coal..took a huge financial hit, but this was really the beginning of the battle against air pollution...

[Blue Diadem]

6. Did you know about the one a few years earlier? Donora Pennsylvania 1948

Your post triggered my memory of watching it very late one evening 1/2 asleep. I had to google it since I couldn't remember where it took place.

Donora suffered no where near the deaths that London did. It surprised me because I'd never heard of it happening in the US. That situation led to the first clean air act.

http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/heritage/cwp/view.asp?a=3&Q=533403&PM=1

http://www.pbs.org/now/science/smog.html

[Sequoia]

8. There's a book about that and 1952 too I'm sure:

"When Smoke Ran Like Water", by Devra Davis

I'll have to check it out at the library. I wonder if that novel (being made into a movie)"Blindness" was partially based on this incident. Maybe not, but it reminded me of it sure enough. Not the smog/fog part of course. Anway, I read "Blindess" when it first came out and it was pretty horrifying.

[Blue Diadem]

9. The book by Dr. Davis sounds interesting.

Apparently she grew up in Donora and I'm curious if she saw first hand the results of people who were exposed in '48. I wonder if that's what led her into her field.

Next time I'm at the library I'll have to check out "Blindness" too.

[Sequoia]

10. Blindness is very good. The author won the Pulitizer Prize for it.

Read it on a dark and stormy night so it'll be scarier!

[cali]

7. it's so funny to come across your post

I was just talking about this with my dear friend and neighbor who is English and was in London at that time.

[Sequoia]

11. Must be my radar!!

What did your dear friend say about it?

[cali]

12. she talked about how dark it was in the middle of the day and trying to

find her house by recognizing the iron fence in front of it.

[Sequoia]

13. Thanks. At lunch I went to the library and found the book.

At least 12,000 people died because of it.

[ailsagirl]

14. That's mind-boggling-- how horrible