Smog kills thousands in England - Dec 04, 1952 - HISTORY.com Smog kills thousands in England Share this: Smog kills thousands in England Author Smog kills thousands in England URL Publisher A+E Networks Heavy smog begins to hover over London, England, on this day in 1952. It persists for four days, leading to the deaths of at least 4,000 people. It was a Thursday afternoon when a high-pressure air mass stalled over the Thames River Valley. When cold air arrived suddenly from the west, the air over London became trapped in place. The problem was exacerbated by low temperatures, which caused residents to burn extra coal in their furnaces. The smoke, soot and sulfur dioxide from the area’s industries along with that from cars and consumer energy usage caused extraordinarily heavy smog to smother the city. By the morning of December 5, there was a visible pall cast over hundreds of square miles. The smog became so thick and dense that by December 7 there was virtually no sunlight and visibility was reduced to five yards in many places.

Eventually, all transportation in the region was halted, but not before the smog caused several rail accidents, including a collision between two trains near London Bridge. The worst effect of the smog, however, was the respiratory distress it caused in humans and animals, including difficulty breathing and the vomiting of phlegm. One of the first noted victims was a prize cow that suffocated on December 5. An unusually high number of people in the area, numbering in the thousands, died in their sleep that weekend. It is difficult to calculate exactly how many deaths and injuries were caused by the smog. As with heat waves, experts compare death totals during the smog to the number of people who have died during the same period in previous years. The period between December 4 and December 8 saw such a marked increase in death in the London metropolitan area that the most conservative estimates place the death toll at 4,000, with some estimating that the smog killed as many as 8,000 people. On December 9, the smog finally blew away. In the aftermath of this incident, the British government passed more stringent regulations on air pollution and encouraged people to stop using coal to hear their homes.

Despite these measures, a similar smog 10 years later killed approximately 100 Londoners. Related Videos The Great Smog of 1952 in London By Jennifer Rosenberg Updated January 26, 2016. When a thick fog engulfed London from December 5 to December 9, 1952, it mixed with black smoke emitted from homes and factories to create a deadly smog . This smog killed approximately 12,000 people and shocked the world into starting the environmental movement. Smoke + Fog = Smog When a severe cold spell hit London in early December 1952, Londoners did what they usually did in such a situation; they burned more coal to heat up their homes. Then on December 5, 1952, a layer of dense fog engulfed the city and stayed for five days. Since the smoke from the coal burning in homes, plus all of London's usual factory emissions, had been prevented from escaping into the atmosphere by an inversion , the fog and smoke combined into a rolling, thick layer of smog.

London Shuts Down Londoners, used to living in a city known for its pea-soup fogs, were not shocked to find themselves surrounded by such thick smog. Yet, although the dense smog did not instill panic, it nearly shut down the city from December 5 to December 9, 1952. continue reading below our video 10 Best Universities in the United States Visibility across London became extremely poor. In some places, visibility had literally gone down to one foot, meaning that you couldn't see your own feet when looking down nor your own hands if held out in front of you. Transportation across the city came to a standstill and many people didn't venture outside for fear of getting lost in their own neighborhoods. At least one theater was closed down because the smog had seeped inside and the audience could no longer see the stage. The Smog Was Deadly It wasn't until after the fog lifted on December 9 that the deadliness of the smog was discovered. In the five days the smog had covered London, over 4,000 more people had died than usual for that time of year. There were also reports that a number of cattle had died from the toxic smog.

In the following weeks, approximately 8,000 more died from exposure to what has become known as the Great Smog of 1952 (it is also sometimes called "the Big Smoke"). Most of those killed by the Great Smog were people who had pre-existing respiratory problems and the elderly. The death toll of the Great Smog of 1952 was shocking. Pollution, which many had thought was just a part of city life, had killed 12,000 people. It was time for change. It was the black smoke that had caused the most damage. Thus, in 1956 and 1968, the British Parliament passed two Clean Air Acts, which began the process of eliminating the burning of coal in both people's homes and in factories. Within 5 days in 1952, London smog killed 4,000 people Image: Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Hell is a city much like London A populous and a smoky city Percy Bysshe Shelley London has always been host to dreary mists and fogs, but in the wake of the Industrial Revolution, they took on a more sinister character.

Coal plants and factories expelled thousands of tons of chemicals, particles and other pollutants. These often bonded with moisture in the air, creating a noxious, smoky fog — smog. Variations in barometric pressure and temperature could sometimes cause thick smog to settle over London for days at a time, restricting visibility and causing health problems. The most notorious incident — the “Great Smog” — occurred in December 1952. A weather phenomenon known as an anticyclone essentially placed a lid of warm air over London, trapping all of the city’s emissions at ground level. Visibility was nonexistent, and the city was paralyzed. When the fog lifted after five days, at least 4,000 people had died, with tens of thousands sickened. The disaster was one of the sparks for the modern environmental movement, and led to legislation reducing the amount of air pollution in the UK. These photos, taken 11 months before the Great Smog, show London carrying on despite pea soup conditions.

Image: Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Image: Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Image: Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Image: Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Image: Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Image: Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images The fogs are ancient Britons. They met the boat when the ancestors of Boadicea landed. Taking advantage of a northern island, rich in rivers and diversity of soils, they roam about on their little cat feet as freely as they did before anyone had heard of smoke abatement. The Times of London, 1952 Image: Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Image: Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Image: Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Image: Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images It's like you were blind. Stan Cribb, Funeral Director Image: Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Share this story Share this: The Great Smog of 1952 A fog so thick and polluted it left thousands dead wreaked havoc on London in 1952.

The smoke-like pollution was so toxic it was even reported to have choked cows to death in the fields. It was so thick it brought road, air and rail transport to a virtual standstill. This was certainly an event to remember, but not the first smog of its kind to hit the capital. Smog had become a frequent part of London life, but nothing quite compared to the smoke-laden fog that shrouded the capital from Friday 5 December to Tuesday 9 December 1952. While it heavily affected the population of London, causing a huge death toll and inconveniencing millions of people, the people it affected were also partly to blame for the smog. During the day on 5 December, the fog was not especially dense and generally possessed a dry, smoky character. When nightfall came, however, the fog thickened. Visibility dropped to a few metres. The following day, the sun was too low in the sky to burn the fog away. That night and on the Sunday and Monday nights, the fog again thickened. In many parts of London, it was impossible at night for pedestrians to find their way, even in familiar districts.

In The Isle of Dogs area, the fog there was so thick people could not see their feet. A history of smog Britain has long been affected by mists and fogs, but these became much more severe after the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s. Factories belched gases and huge numbers of particles into the atmosphere, which in themselves could be poisonous. The pollutants in the air, however, could also act as catalysts for fog, as water clings to the tiny particles to create polluted fog, or smog. When some of the chemicals mix with water and air, they can turn into acid which can cause skin irritations, breathing problems, and even corrode buildings. Smog can be identified easily by its thick, foul-smelling, dirty-yellow or brown characteristics, totally different to the clean white fog in country areas. There are reports of thick smog, smelling of coal tar, which blanketed London in December 1813. Lasting for several days, people claimed you could not see from one side of the street to the other. A similar fog in December 1873 saw the death rate across London rise 40% above normal.

Marked increases in death rate occurred, too, after the notable fogs of January 1880, February 1882, December 1891, December 1892 and November 1948. The worst affected area of London was usually the East End, where the density of factories and homes was greater than almost anywhere else in the capital. The area was also low-lying, making it hard for fog to disperse. How the smog of 1952 formed The weather in November and early December 1952 had been very cold, with heavy snowfalls across the region. To keep warm, the people of London were burning large quantities of coal in their homes. Smoke was pouring from the chimneys of their houses. Under normal conditions, smoke would rise into the atmosphere and disperse, but an anticyclone was hanging over the region. This pushes air downwards, warming it as it descends. This creates an inversion, where air close to the ground is cooler than the air higher above it. So when the warm smoke comes out of the chimney, it is trapped.

The inversion of 1952 also trapped particles and gases emitted from factory chimneys in the London area, along with pollution which the winds from the east had brought from industrial areas on the continent. Early on 5 December, in the London area, the sky was clear, winds were light and the air near the ground was moist. Accordingly, conditions were ideal for the formation of radiation fog. The sky was clear, so a net loss of long-wave radiation occurred and the ground cooled. When the moist air came into contact with the ground it cooled to its dew-point temperature and condensation occurred. Beneath the inversion of the anticyclone, the very light wind stirred the saturated air upwards to form a layer of fog 100-200 metres deep. Along with the water droplets of the fog, the atmosphere beneath the inversion contained the smoke from innumerable chimneys in the London area. During the period of the fog, huge amounts of impurities were released into the atmosphere.

On each day during the foggy period, the following pollutants were emitted: 1,000 tonnes of smoke particles, 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, 140 tonnes of hydrochloric acid and 14 tonnes of fluorine compounds. In addition, and perhaps most dangerously, 370 tonnes of sulphur dioxide were converted into 800 tonnes of sulphuric acid. Impacts of the smog The fog finally cleared on December 9, but it had already taken a heavy toll. About 4,000 people were known to have died as a result of the fog, but it could be many more. Many people suffered from breathing problems Press reports claimed cattle at Smithfield had been asphyxiated by the smog. Travel was disrupted for days Response to the smog A series of laws were brought in to avoid a repeat of the situation. This included the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968. These acts banned emissions of black smoke and decreed residents of urban areas and operators of factories must convert to smokeless fuels.

People were given time to adapt to the new rules, however, and fogs continued to be smoky for some time after the Act of 1956 was passed. In 1962, for example, 750 Londoners died as a result of a fog, but nothing on the scale of the 1952 Great Smog has ever occurred again. This kind of smog has now become a thing of the past, thanks partly to pollution legislation and also to modern developments, such as the widespread use of central heating. Last updated: Apr 20, 2015 12:09 PM Killer London Smog of 1952 The Lethal London Smog Event 5th-9th December 1952 The 1952 London smog episode (also known as the Great Smog or Great Smoke) stands out as one of the worst man-made air pollution disasters the world had ever known given the sheer number of people who died as a result. Even though London was well known for its frequent smog, no one had ever seen a smog of such magnitude.

For the week ending 13th December 1952, there was approximately 4,000 excess deaths (i.e. the number of deaths exceeding those during the same time period the previous year when there was minimal smog) and an additional 8,000 deaths occurred over the next two and a half months. London smog in December 1952 under this Creative Commons Licence This smog event made the public acutely aware that smoky air can kill, but the government at the time was reluctant to do anything to prevent future smog until public demand for action became too great. Consequently, four years later in 1956, extensive government legislation was passed through parliament that would ultimately lead to substantial reductions in fossil fuel emissions in large cities, not only in London, but across the modern world. You may be asking, how did it all begin?... Well, you have to look back in history. History of air pollution in London There has always been episodes of thick smog permeating the streets of London ever since the mid-to-late thirteenth century when shipped 'sea coal' was burnt and used as a fuel by limeburners and other industries.

Most of the people living in London (population estimated to be 80,000) in around the year 1300 used firewood and it was not until after 1550 that coal began to be widely used for domestic purposes. Even back in the thirteenth century, local residents complained to the authorities that the smoke pouring forth from the lime kilns stunk. In fact, Queen Eleanor of Provence, (wife of King Henry III) back in 1257 became quite ill due to the high levels of coal fumes permeating into Nottingham Castle, that she was forced to leave. As the years rolled by, especially in the latter part of the Victoria Era, London smog levels gradually became worse since nearly every household was now burning coal instead of firewood. This meant that the emissions produced by coal burning could now uniformly fall upon parts of London that normally were not exposed to smog.

The winters of 1873,1880,1882,1891 and 1892 recorded exceptionally thick smog and many people and animals died due to complications from severe respiratory problems when they inhaled high doses of carbon monoxide, toxic particulate matter (soot) mixed with sulfur dioxide. By the turn of the 20th Century, severe London smog episodes became less common since the meteorological conditions that aided the formation of the late 19th century smog events were not present. The next significant air pollution event in London would not occur until November 1948. This lesser known smog contributed to the deaths of between 700 and 800 people. Health effects of the London smog event of 1952 Ever since the 1952 London smog event, there has been numerous studies proving that inhaling high levels of air pollutants endangers your health. Unfortunately, for the residents of London, no one including the government officials realised this link.

In fact, up to 1952, it was widely believed that people became sick or died as a result of the unusually cold weather conditions, rather than the smog being the cause of the problem. The most common health complaint at the time was that the smog left a sulphurous taste in the mouth and it irritated the nasal passages and made the eyes sting. The smog made breathing difficult and caused many healthy people to suffer respiratory problems. These symptoms became a lot worse in people who had a pre-existing medical condition. What was immediately apparent after the smog had cleared was the fact that this smog not only led to the deaths of people with pre-existing medical problems (respiratory and cardiovascular) but it also contained sufficient doses of toxic substances that contributed to the death of healthy individuals. The highest recorded polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentration during the worst part of the London smog event was measured to be 3300ng/m3*. Airborne PAH's are highly toxic are known to be both animal and human carcinogens. It makes you wonder what percentage of people who were exposed to the London smog episode actually developed various types of cancers. This, of course, is impossible to know.

* Please note: 1ng means one nanogram which is equal to 10-9grams As a comparison, the highest recorded PAH concentration measured from January 1991 to December 1992 is 10.2ng/m3. It's no wonder the number of excess deaths reached 4,000 people since high levels of PAH's rapidly weaken human immune systems, and thus the additional inhaled carbon monoxide (CO) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) together with particulate matter (smoke) placed their already compromised bodies at grave risk of developing severe respiratory and cardiovascular complications. According to a number of researchers, it was concluded that the smog contained a large amount of metallic particulate matter (most notably zinc). Now zinc is highly soluble and is responsible for damaging cells in the body. It is highly possible that the high proportion of zinc particles in the air was readily absorbed into the bloodstream and that contributed to their death. As you are probably aware, when taken orally at low doses, zinc tablets can be quite therapeutic if you suffer from a zinc deficiency, yet the same substance is toxic at high doses.

Up until recently, it was widely believed that an influenza outbreak was responsible for additional 8,000 deaths that occurred within the first two months after the smog had first disappeared. The latest research has shown that there was no evidence of this influenza outbreak. So what was the cause of the 1952 London smog episode? This smog event culminated into the worst civilian disaster in terms of loss of life. There was multiple factors at play that led to the tragic London smog episode on the 5-9th December 1952. These factors can broken into: Non-industrial: According to the 1952 census records, Greater London now had a population of about 8.6 million. A large percentage of the population were trying to keep warm and so needed to burn coal in their domestic grates. This factor is believed to be the main contributor to the 1952 London smog episode. Meteorological: There was a strong slow moving high pressure system situated over southern England. This guarantees that there would be no wind to blow the smog away from the regions of London that were pumping out air pollutants.

A strong temperature inversion developed in the early hours of the 5th December 1952. A temperature inversion prevents the natural vertical dispersal of air pollutants into the atmosphere. Outdoor temperatures plummeted to near freezing and remained so throughout the whole period. The relative humidity rose to almost 100 percent during the night of the 6th December 1952 and remained at high levels until the evening of the 9th December. This moist cold air drained into all parts of low lying London. Industrial: There was a build up of toxic substances into the atmosphere through the combustion of coke, oil and coal products due to the large number of factories in operation throughout London. Vehicles: In July 1952, electric trams were replaced by thousands of diesel-powered buses. This was the first time in history that London air was exposed to high levels of diesel emissions. By the third day of the London smog, no one could see to drive since the air pollution made the visibility exceptionally low (particularly in the mornings). Thus, diesel emissions stopped.

Even though there was numerous cars on the road in the days leading to the smog event, it has been shown that car exhaust fumes made only a minor contribution up until the third day of the 1952 London smog episode. Main air pollutants during the London smog episode Air pollutant (F) 14 Now if you combine all these factors, the only logical conclusion is that London smog event of 1952 was inevitable. The main reason why the smog was so bad is because there was no wind movement and thus the pollutants continued to build to toxic levels. The worst day in terms of visibility and extreme toxicity occurred on the morning of the 7th December. Visibility outdoors had reduced to less than one metre during the night and around 20-100 metres during the afternoon. As a consequence, it was impossible to use public transport and most shop owners closed doors since they didn't want the outdoor smog to permeate indoors. However, it was impossible to prevent the tiny soot and other smog particles from entering most houses. This explains why there were large numbers of people dying at home.

The 1952 London smog event dwarfed all previous smog events in London in terms excess mortality and morbidity. Thankfully, given that air pollution emissions today are regulated across most of the industrialised nations, it's extremely unlikely that a repeat of what happened in London will ever occur again. But even so, the people living in London nowadays still have to be aware that the current levels of air pollution can still affect human health. References Anderson HR. Air pollution and mortality:A history. Atmospheric Environment. 2009;43:142-152. Bell ML, Davis DL and Fletcher T. A retrospective assessment of mortality from the London smog episode of 1952: The role of influenza and pollution. Environmental Health Perspectives 2004;112(1):6-8. Brimblecombe P. History of air pollution. In: Singh HB. (Ed.) Composition, Chemistry and Climate of the Atmosphere. Van Nostrand Reinhold. New York. 1995;pp. 1-18. Brimblecombe P. The Big Smoke. A History of Air Pollution in London Since Medieval Times. Methuen. London.

1987 Davis D. The great smog. History Today. 2002;52(12):2-3. Fenger J. Air pollution in the last 50 years - From local to global. Atmospheric Environment. 2009;43:13-22. Galloway JA, Keene D and Murphy M. Fuelling the city: production and distribution of firewood and fuel in London's region, 1290-1400. Economic History Review. 1996;XLIX(3):447-472. Weinhold B. Heavy on the metals. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2003;111(9):A481. The Great Smog of London: the air was thick with apathy - Telegraph Countryside The Great Smog of London: the air was thick with apathy The capital was famous for its filthy air long before the Great Smog of 1952 but it took the deaths of 4,000 people to prompt a clean-up.

And even now the city lives under a deadly cloud of invisible pollutants Piccadilly Circus in the smog: On the weekend that began on Friday, December 5 1952 visibility quickly dropped to five yards all over London, and on Sunday night it was officially described as “nil” Photo: HULTON GETTY The killer London smog event of December, 1952: a reminder of deadly smog events in U.S. - The Washington Post The killer London smog event of December, 1952: a reminder of deadly smog events in U.S. The inside track on Washington politics. Be the first to know about new stories from PowerPost. Sign up to follow, and we’ll e-mail you free updates as they’re published. You’ll receive free e-mail news updates each time a new story is published. You’re all set! Got it By Steve Tracton By Steve Tracton December 20, 2012 While not as thick as the Great Smog of 1952, smog remains an issue in London.

Shown here is compromised visibility from a smog episode in April 2011 (Matt Dunham/AP) Sixty years ago this month (December), London was enveloped under a toxic mix of dense fog and sooty black smoke for four days. This episode of polluted air is among the deadliest environmental disasters in recorded history. The event became known as the Great Smog of 1952. Over 4,000 more people died than usual for that time of year with an estimated 8,000 more fatalities in the following weeks from exposure to the noxious air pollution. While not as deadly – and not as well-known - hundreds of deaths have been attributed directly to episodes of severe smog in the U.S. over the 60 intervening years - including three killer smog events in New York City. The setup for the deadly London smog episode involved a stagnant very cold high pressure region that settled over the city December 5, 1962. Along with the usual factory emissions of coal smoke and soot, increasing burning of coal for home heating added to smoke levels pouring from chimneys. The meteorological conditions were favorable for fog formation and characterized by little wind to disperse smoke horizontally.

In addition, an inversion above the surface trapped air from rising vertically. As such, the combination of smoke and fog inevitably led to an increasingly dense layer of smog. Link: Pictures of 1952 London smog (BBC) The choking smog enveloped the city for four days. In some places, even daytime visibility was so limited you couldn’t see your own feet. With near zero visibility, roads were littered with abandoned cars. Midday concerts and social events were cancelled due to total darkness and virtually all commerce was shut down. People died in their homes and in the hospitals, mainly older audlt with existing cardio-respiratory illnesses. Amazingly it was reported that no one noticed the rising death toll: “There were bodies lying around the streets … One of the first indications that things were happening is that undertakers were running out of coffins, florists were running out of flowers,” writes Jennifer Rosenberg of About.com. On December 9, wind swept in unexpectedly and the killer smog vanished as quickly as it had arrived. Before the Great Smog of 1952, Londoners tended to accept pollution as part of life of the industrial age.

Afterward, those who had survived no longer spoke of London’s romantic pea-soup fog. Rather, once the smog lifted they increasingly fought to limit the poisons emanated as side effects of industrialization. Environmental research subsequently increased awareness of the relationships between air quality and health. This led to the British Clean Air Act 1956 . There has not been anything close to the scale of Great Smog in the decades following, but experts say the present levels of air pollution , although not as visible, may be just as much of a threat. A 2010 report to the UK Parliament found that in 2008 4,000 people died in London from air pollution (the same number from the Great Smog of 1952) and 30,000 died across the whole of the UK. The culprit now, however, is not just burning of coal and the resulting smoke/soot, but also vehicle and industrial fossil fuel emissions. These emissions react chemically in the presence of sunlight to form ground-level ozone , or photochemical smog.

Like the smoke/soot smog that enveloped London, both soot and photochemical smog have been deadly in the U.S. In November 1953, smog killed between 170 and 260 people in NYC; 10 years later it killed 200; and in 1966 it killed 169 (sources Gothamist , New York Times ). Smog over New York City in 2006. (NASA) Given that the Washington, D.C. metro region is known for some of the worst traffic in the country, it should not be surprising that the area is ranked also among the smoggiest metropolitan areas in the country. The 2012 State of the Air Report from American Lung Association ranked Washington, D.C. 13th among the most polluted cities for ozone, and 22nd for short-term particle pollution (e.g. from soot). A 2011 report from Penn Environment ranked Washington, D.C. and Baltimore third smoggiest among major metropolitan areas. I can personally attest to the elevated pollution levels locally with regard to my vulnerability to asthma attacks.

Although air pollution is certainly present both locally and elsewhere across the country, reforms under EPA’s Clean Air Act have resulted in demonstrable improvements in air quality in the last few decades. EPA’s most recent Air Trends report shows the national average ground level ozone concentration decreased 28 percent from 1980-2010 and large and small particle pollution also decreased substantially . Despite these gains, Charles Connor, president of the American Lung Association said last spring “....America’s air quality standards are woefully outdated, and unhealthy levels of air pollution still exist across the nation, putting the health of millions of Americans at stake.” In September 2011, facing stiff Republican opposition, President Obama decided to delay tightening the nation’s smog standards . On the other hand, just last week the Post’s Juliet Eilperin reported that EPA was tightening soot standards by 20 percent. Jason Samenow contributed to this post local The Great Smog | History Today The Great Smog London Environmental History Devra Davis looks at the London Smog disaster of 1952-53.

While the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II has been in full swing since the summer, another anniversary of unhappier events that occurred in the year of her accession remains largely unsung. From December 1952 to March 1953 in Greater London 12,000 residents more than usual perished in what was modern London’s most massive civilian disaster. Smoke from a million chimneys ran like water and pumped clotted, coal-fumes into cooler stilled air. Unable to disperse upwards through the heavier chillier air, hot, smoky fumes fell to the ground and did not visibly diminish for a solid week. During the unprecedented 1952 smog, the sun remained unseen. Dark days became murky shadowed nights. Because more people lived closer together in London at that time than in any other modern city, the city’s residents suffered a colossal health toll. The historian Peter Brimblecombe reports that for centuries, the city had the world’s greatest concentration of coal stoves, most inhospitable airs and regularly foggy weather. In the Middle Ages, mountains of coal piled up in London as a result of sea trade.

From its large port, London regularly sent out vessels laden with animal hides, whale oil, tallow, dried fish and meats, fertiliser and wools. Ships often returned from the less-populated northern British Isles empty, except for the crew. To weather the rough seas around the coast, mariners filled their holds with what became known as sea-coale, carbonem marus. By the thirteenth century, mounds of dusty black rock clogged city streets, docks and alleys. In an effort to rid themselves of the black heaps that filled the city, Londoners began to char coal, which lasted longer and burned hotter than wood. Not all were enthralled with its smoke. Queen Eleanor, fleeing the fumes created by heavy use of sea-coale in Nottingham Castle in 1257, issued one of many fruitless royal bans on coal burning. By the fifteenth century, London’s skies were regularly blackened with coal smoke. Many residents blamed the region’s foggy weather for the persistent greyed airs. The debate about whether coal smoke affected human health ended the winter of 1952-53 in London.

On December 8th, cool air from across the English Channel settled over the Thames Valley and did not move. Within a week more than 3,000 deaths than usual had occurred. The medical essayist David Bates, then a young physician experienced in wartime medicine, recalls that officials could not imagine that the environment could produce more civilian casualties in London than any single incident of the war. In sheer scale this disaster could not be ignored. In one week alone 4,703 people died, compared with 1,852 during the same week the previous year. Bates recounts the reluctance of officials to accept that so many people had suddenly dropped dead merely from breathing dirty air.

He adds: ‘The public realised this earlier than the government of the day.’ One Member of Parliament put this episode into context when he asked Harold Macmillan, then Minister of Housing: ‘Does the Minister not appreciate that last month, in Greater London alone, there were literally more people choked to death by air pollution than were killed on the roads in the whole country in 1952?’ Eager to put off demands that measures be taken to reduce use of dirtier coal, and focus on the nation’s grim economic realities, the British Government sprang into inaction. But Macmillan understood the need for officials to look like they were doing something in the face of this massive civilian catastrophe. In a cynical move, he authorised the issuance of smog masks, known to be useless. And in a respected government tradition, he found it easier to set up a committee to study the problem, rather than come up with ways to keep lethal smogs from recurring. By 1954, the committee report noted that deaths and illnesses remained higher than usual until the end of February 1953. By 1956 major legislation to require reductions in coal burning became the law of the land.

Fears that England could not afford the extra expense of burning cleaner coal may well explain why the official version attributed these persisting deaths to a widespread outbreak of flu, not to any lingering effects of the pea-souper. In post-war London, sweets were still being rationed, and horse meat was being sold for food. But, as to the notion that London was rife with flu, my colleague Michelle Bell and I have shown conclusively that there was no such epidemic. Today the public faces newer challenges. While air pollution from coal no longer plagues urban areas, that from diesel vehicles and other aspects of modern life, including precursor chemicals, which give rise to photochemical oxidants, exact a major avoidable price on our health. Just as the impact of the London smog did not end in a single week but extended over several months, regular exposure to much lower levels of soiled air today produces a broad array of human health problems, including earlier deaths in the aged, the ill and the young, fewer births, more birth defects, and more health problems in children. In truth, environmental contamination never appears on anyone’s death certificate, and is seldom thought of as a contribution to chronic illness.

Major types of death and sickness, like heart and lung diseases, all are well known to have different causes. Smoking cigarettes and excessive alcohol consumption are among the most important and widely acknowledged avoidable health risks today. But these bad habits cannot account for the persisting excess of lung cancer and other ailments in urban areas. Those who conduct studies on the impact on health of polluted air today owe a major debt to those who died in 1952-53, and those who succumbed in other less well known episodes later. For instance, in 1962, during another heavy smog, 750 more deaths than usual occurred. No fitting memorial has yet been devised to commemorate these deaths. As a city full of monuments and other mementoes from its colourful history, and as the site of a disaster that set the stage for modern environmental laws, London can now afford to create a monument to honour the 12,000 whose lives ended in the greatest officially recognised urban air pollution disaster in modern history.

Devra Davis is Honorary Professor, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Senior Advisor to the World Health Organisation, and the author of When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution (The Perseus Press, £14.99). What is the origin of London's nickname "The Old Smoke"? | Notes and Queries | guardian.co.uk What is the origin of London's nickname "The Old Smoke"? Chris Johnson, Sheffield, UK If you been in London in the '50s (or earlier), you wouldn't have asked. Pete Wigens, Stroud, Glos UK Edinburgh was: 'Auld Reekie'. London, which was just: 'The Smoke', earned this name at a time when it had a 100 sq miles of dwellings each with its own fire place. Peter Brooke, By Kinmuck, Scotland As an addendum to my earlier reply, I should say that I have never heard the capital referred to as "The Old Smoke", simply "The Smoke". Pete Wigens, Stroud, Glos UK ... and if you had been around in late Victorian times too, you would not have asked.

When the "range" cooker was invented and widely installed, domestic servants had no idea how to operate the multi-damper system, and so left the fire roaring at maximum heat. Imagine the effect on the metropolitan atmosphere. The nickname is at least that old. Paul Thompson, Perth Scotland London had thousands of coal fires. It is next to a river. The result of the former was a lot of smoke and of the latter a lot of fog. The smoke got mixed with the fog, creating 'smog', and trapped by temperature inversion. Result: impenetrable fogs which killed, or hastened the deaths of, thousands, most notably in the Great Smog of 1952. The Clean Air Act of 1956 put an end to this by creating smoke free zones in which only 'smokeless' fuel could be burned. Christopher Nutt, Cambridge, Cambs I would have to assume it was because of the large amount of pollution produced by factories during the Industrial Revolution but this is just an educated guess.

Tim Boxall, Carshalton, England Through the 19th and in the early half of the 20th century, Londoners used coal for heating their homes, which produced large amounts of smoke. In combination with climatic conditions this often caused a characteristic smog, and London became known for its typical "London Fog", also known as "Pea Soupers". London was sometimes referred to as "The Smoke" because of this. In 1952 this culminated in the disastrous Great Smog of 1952 which lasted for five days and killed over 4,000 people. In response to this, the Clean Air Act 1956 was passed, mandating the creating of "smokeless zones" where the use of "smokeless" fuels was required (this was at a time when most households still used open fires); the Act was effective, though the nickname is still used sarcastically. Laura, Warrington, UK My cousin grew up in SE London in the sixties and it was still 'The Smoke' then. He moved to Scotland around 1970, but still uses the term.

I'm a few years younger and tend to use 'Big L' from the days of the pirate radio stations (but listened to Caroline myself). Derek Elder, Glasgow, living in Edinburgh UK "The Smoke" is correct - No "Big" or "Old". I was 6 years old and living in North London in 1952. Vehicles were constantly mounting the pavement, luckily very slowly. I remember a bus conductor leading his bus along the street with a flaming torch because the driver couldn't see the road. Steve PF, Vancouver Island Canada The Killer Fog That Blanketed London - History in the Headlines The Killer Fog That Blanketed London December 6, 2012 By Christopher Klein Share this: The Killer Fog That Blanketed London Author The Killer Fog That Blanketed London URL Google For five days in December 1952, London gasped for air. A toxic fog smothered the British capital, paralyzing the city and blackening out the sun. Take a look back at the worst air pollution disaster in British history, which is estimated to have killed at least 4,000 Londoners. Clear skies dawned over London on December 5, 1952.

An unusual cold snap had gripped the British capital for weeks, and as Londoners awoke, coal fireplaces worked overtime to take the chill from the air. As the day progressed, a light veil of fog began to enshroud Big Ben, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the rest of the city. By the afternoon, though, the fog began to turn a sickly shade of yellow as it mixed with the thousands of tons of soot being pumped into the skies of London by its forest of chimneys and industrial smokestacks. Smog was nothing new in London, but this particular “pea souper” quickly thickened into a poisonous brew unlike anything the city had ever experienced. A high-pressure system parked over London caused a temperature inversion—with the air 1,000 feet above the surface warmer than that at ground level—that prevented the smoke from the record amount of coal being burned into the skies from rising. And with nary a breeze to be found, there was no wind to disperse the soot-laden soup. The 30-mile-wide noxious smog, teeming with acrid sulfur particles, reeked like rotten eggs.

It was so dense that residents in the Isle of Dogs section of the city reported they were unable to see their feet as they walked. For five days, the Great Smog paralyzed London and crippled all transportation, except for its Underground. Boat traffic on the Thames came to a halt. Flights were grounded and trains cancelled. Even during the middle of the day, drivers turned on their headlights and hanged their heads out the windows in an attempt to inch ahead through the yellow gloom. Many found the exercise futile and abandoned their cars. Conductors grasping flashlights and torches walked in front of the iconic double-decker buses to guide drivers nosing down the city streets. Wheezing pedestrians groped their ways around the city’s neighborhoods and tried not to slip on the greasy black ooze that coated sidewalks. By the time they returned home, with their faces and noses blackened by the air, Londoners resembled coal miners. Getty Images Authorities advised parents to keep their children home from school in fear they would get lost in the smog. Burglaries and purse snatchings increased as emboldened criminals easily vanished into the cloaking darkness. Birds lost in the fog crashed into buildings.

Eleven prize heifers brought to Earls Court for the famed Smithfield Show choked to death, and breeders fashioned improvised gas masks for their cattle by soaking grain sacks in whiskey. Weekend soccer games were cancelled, although Oxford and Cambridge carried on with their annual cross-country competition at Wimbledon Common with the help of track marshals who continually shouted, “This way, this way, Oxford and Cambridge” as runners materialized out of the thick haze. The smog seeped inside as well. A greasy grime covered exposed surfaces, and movie theaters even closed as the yellow haze made it impossible for ticket-holders to see the screen. Unfortunately, the Great Smog was much more than a nuisance. It was lethal, particularly for the elderly, babies and those with respiratory and cardiovascular problems. Outside of the coughing and the wheezing, death came silently to London. It wasn’t until undertakers began to run out of coffins and florists out of bouquets that the deadly impact of the Great Smog was realized. Deaths from bronchitis and pneumonia increased more than sevenfold. The death rate in the East End increased nine fold.

Initial reports estimated that upwards of 4,000 died prematurely in the immediate aftermath of the smog, which finally lifted on December 9, 1952, after a cold wind from the west swept the toxic cloud away from London and out to the North Sea. The detrimental effects lingered, however, and death rates remained above normal into the summer, which have caused some experts to estimate the Great Smog claimed as many as 12,000 lives. Initially, the British government was reluctant to act in the wake of the Great Smog. Following a government investigation, however, Parliament passed the Clean Air Act of 1956, which restricted the burning of coal in urban areas and authorized local councils to set up smoke-free zones. Homeowners received grants to convert from coal to alternative heating systems. The transition away from coal as the city’s primary heating source to gas, oil and electricity took years, and during that time deadly fogs periodically occurred, such as one that killed 750 people in 1962, but none of them reached the scale of the Great Smog that descended upon London 60 years ago. Tags

Question: What city's "Great Smog" killed over 4,000 people in 1952?
Answer: London