In October 1948 a temperature inversion trapped the effluent of Donora, Pennsylvania's mills for five days, killing about twenty people and sickening roughly six thousand. In December 1952 London's Great Smog killed about four thousand by the official count and far more by modern reanalysis. These two fogs founded air-pollution epidemiology and pushed Britain and the United States toward clean-air laws.
Who's who
- William RongausDonora physician who led ambulances on foot through the fog
- Devra DavisEpidemiologist and Donora native; co-author of the London reanalysis
- Hugh BeaverIndustrialist who chaired the committee behind Britain's 1956 Clean Air Act
- Gerald NabarroMP whose private member's bill pushed the government toward legislation
- Harry S. Truman+14 more episodesPresident who convened the first national air pollution conference in 1950
- Michelle BellCo-author of the 2001 reanalysis of London's smog deaths
Where it happens
- Donora, Pennsylvania+1 more episodeMill town on the Monongahela River hit by the 1948 smog
- London, England+7 more episodesGreat Smog of December 1952
- Monongahela River Valley, PennsylvaniaHorseshoe bend where the inversion trapped emissions
Timeline
- October 1948A five-day inversion traps mill emissions in Donora; about 20 die and 6,000 fall ill.
- 1949The Public Health Service report confirms the epidemic but names no single culprit.
- 1951U.S. Steel settles Donora lawsuits for roughly $235,000 without admitting fault.
- December 1952London's Great Smog kills about 4,000 by the first official count.
- 1956Britain passes its Clean Air Act.
- 1970The U.S. Clean Air Act and the EPA follow.
Still debated
Whether fluoride from the zinc works or sulfur oxides and particulates alone killed at Donora is unresolved. London's roughly 12,000 deaths come from a modern reanalysis, and some scholars argue influenza explains more of the excess.
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