1 00:00:02,360 --> 00:00:05,840 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. Since the Great London's mog came up in 2 00:00:05,880 --> 00:00:09,639 Speaker 1: our recent episode on Thomas Midley Jr. And his development 3 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:12,920 Speaker 1: of leaded gasoline, we are boringing that out as Today's 4 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:17,079 Speaker 1: Saturday Classic. This episode originally came out on July two. 5 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:24,520 Speaker 1: Enjoy Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a 6 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:34,520 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. Hello, and Welcome to the podcast. 7 00:00:34,640 --> 00:00:38,360 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Today we 8 00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:42,120 Speaker 1: have a listener request. It is for listeners Stewart. So, 9 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:47,000 Speaker 1: London has a long and established history as a very 10 00:00:47,400 --> 00:00:51,640 Speaker 1: foggy place, and for many centuries that fogg was also 11 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:56,080 Speaker 1: very dirty. In the eighteen fifties, Charles Dickens described London 12 00:00:56,120 --> 00:00:59,040 Speaker 1: as fog up the river where it flows among green 13 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:02,720 Speaker 1: airs and meadow, was fogged down the river where it rolls, 14 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:07,640 Speaker 1: defiled among the tears of shipping and the waterside pollutions 15 00:01:07,720 --> 00:01:12,000 Speaker 1: of a great and dirty city. Like in the eighteen 16 00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:14,800 Speaker 1: eighties when Jack the Ripper was, you know, in London, 17 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:18,000 Speaker 1: being a serial killer. That was even more terrifying because 18 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:21,880 Speaker 1: it was all going on in this disgusting smog. Claude Monet, 19 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:26,320 Speaker 1: who uh you know, his his paintings really examined light 20 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:29,680 Speaker 1: and shadow. Went to London at the turn of the 21 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 1: twentieth century specifically to paint what the smog was doing 22 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:37,520 Speaker 1: to the sun. So smog is not a modern Los 23 00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:44,199 Speaker 1: Angeles thing, no, So that is why when the Great 24 00:01:44,319 --> 00:01:48,600 Speaker 1: London Smog descended in December of nineteen fifty two, nobody 25 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:52,720 Speaker 1: quite realized anything unusual was going on. People had been 26 00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:55,800 Speaker 1: burning cold to heat their homes in London at least 27 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:59,360 Speaker 1: since the Middle Ages, and this dense, grimy pea soup 28 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 1: fog had been documented all the way back to the 29 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:07,000 Speaker 1: sixteen hundreds that it really did get worse. Of a 30 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:09,680 Speaker 1: lot of this, like filth, was coming from people burning 31 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:13,679 Speaker 1: cold to heat their homes, but the Industrial Revolution did 32 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:17,120 Speaker 1: make it worse by adding industrial smokestacks to the mix. 33 00:02:17,919 --> 00:02:21,960 Speaker 1: There had also been some possibly deadly smog before nineteen 34 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:25,720 Speaker 1: fifty two at various points. This dense smog had rolled 35 00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:27,840 Speaker 1: in during the dead of winter, and it seemed like 36 00:02:27,919 --> 00:02:30,720 Speaker 1: maybe more people were dying than normal, but it was 37 00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:33,800 Speaker 1: also usually during a bitter cold snap, and so it 38 00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: wasn't completely clear whether it was the smog or the 39 00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:40,320 Speaker 1: cold that was killing people. Doctors had suspected since the 40 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:43,160 Speaker 1: Victorian era that smog could be deadly, but they didn't 41 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:45,640 Speaker 1: really have a good way to prove it. But in 42 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:48,839 Speaker 1: the case of the Great London Smog, it was conclusive. 43 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:52,560 Speaker 1: This was an environmental disaster that was worse than anything 44 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:55,920 Speaker 1: that had been documented at that point. It UH. It 45 00:02:56,080 --> 00:03:00,360 Speaker 1: dwarfed some more recent smog related deaths that had built 46 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:05,320 Speaker 1: Belgium in nineteen thirty and Donora, Pennsylvania in night and 47 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:08,320 Speaker 1: by the time it was over, there was no real 48 00:03:08,880 --> 00:03:11,400 Speaker 1: there was a There were attempts to argue that it 49 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:14,040 Speaker 1: was not the smog's fault, but it was obvious that 50 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:18,359 Speaker 1: it was the smog's fault. UM. And at its largest, 51 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:22,640 Speaker 1: the smog was a thirty kilometers or eighteen miles around 52 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:26,080 Speaker 1: London and before it was gone, it had killed thousands 53 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:31,359 Speaker 1: of people. Yeah. And it all started on Friday, December 54 00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:35,280 Speaker 1: five of nineteen fifty two. UH. And at first this 55 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:39,800 Speaker 1: smog wasn't particularly unusual as small went. During that first day, 56 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:42,840 Speaker 1: it was just your standard dry, smoky fog and people 57 00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:46,120 Speaker 1: went about their business. Uh. That night, however, the fog 58 00:03:46,200 --> 00:03:51,000 Speaker 1: thickened and it took on a distinctly sulfurous smell. So 59 00:03:51,200 --> 00:03:54,320 Speaker 1: normally air near the ground is warmer than the air 60 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:56,960 Speaker 1: above it, so hot air like smoke from a chimney 61 00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:00,240 Speaker 1: can rise up through the cold air. But on night 62 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:02,880 Speaker 1: of December five, as the ground got colder, the air 63 00:04:02,960 --> 00:04:05,280 Speaker 1: near the ground also got colder, and it wound up 64 00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:08,280 Speaker 1: cooling off to a lower temperature than the air above it. 65 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:11,840 Speaker 1: That's create that created what's known as a thermal inversion, 66 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:15,960 Speaker 1: so smoke from chimney, chimneys and smoke stacks got trapped 67 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:18,919 Speaker 1: near the ground, and a high pressure area over the 68 00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:22,800 Speaker 1: city contributed to this problem as well, and a mist 69 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:25,479 Speaker 1: also formed in that layer of cool air, which was 70 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: also a very big problem. As water condensed out of 71 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:31,600 Speaker 1: the air, it collected on the particles of soot, tar, 72 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:37,720 Speaker 1: and sulfur dioxide, basically creating acid fog. Acid fog was 73 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:41,760 Speaker 1: also not really an extraordinary situation in London at this point, 74 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:45,080 Speaker 1: but normally in the morning, the sun would come out 75 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:46,960 Speaker 1: and it would heat up the air in the ground again, 76 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:49,640 Speaker 1: so smoke could start to rise normally and the sun 77 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:52,960 Speaker 1: would evaporate all of this acid mist that was lingering. 78 00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:55,800 Speaker 1: But on the morning of December six, the smog was 79 00:04:55,880 --> 00:04:58,440 Speaker 1: so thick that the sun could not break through it, 80 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:00,960 Speaker 1: so the air that was near the ground stay cold 81 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:04,240 Speaker 1: and the smog did not go anywhere. It was also 82 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,400 Speaker 1: colder than normal, so people had to burn more cold 83 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:10,600 Speaker 1: than usual to heat their homes. So as the smog 84 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:13,640 Speaker 1: wore on, more and more pollution was added to this 85 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:18,760 Speaker 1: already stagnant cloud of hovering acid rain. Every night during 86 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:21,320 Speaker 1: the smog, when the when night fell to fog would 87 00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:24,120 Speaker 1: just get thicker and thicker, and at the worst of it, 88 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:27,000 Speaker 1: which was that Sunday, visibility dropped to as little as 89 00:05:27,040 --> 00:05:31,440 Speaker 1: a meter or about three ft. According to the Met Office, 90 00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:34,520 Speaker 1: Here's what was pumped into the air around London every 91 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:39,599 Speaker 1: day during the smog. One thousand tons of smoke particles, 92 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:44,520 Speaker 1: two thousand tons of carbon dioxide, a hundred and forty 93 00:05:44,560 --> 00:05:49,839 Speaker 1: tons of hydrochloric acid, and fourteen tons of fluorine compounds. 94 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:53,440 Speaker 1: On top of that, about three hundred and seventy tons 95 00:05:53,520 --> 00:05:57,039 Speaker 1: of sulfur dioxide going into the air were converted into 96 00:05:57,120 --> 00:06:01,240 Speaker 1: eight hundred tons of sulfuric acid. During the worst of 97 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:03,640 Speaker 1: the smog, you could not see the sun or as 98 00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:05,599 Speaker 1: the saying goes, your hand in front of your face, 99 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:09,919 Speaker 1: or your own feet while you were standing up. Soot 100 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:15,200 Speaker 1: basically settled on and blackened everything. Everything smelled terrible, and 101 00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:19,840 Speaker 1: it was physically difficult to breathe. People wore masks or 102 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:23,120 Speaker 1: covered their noses and mouths with handkerchiefs. This might have 103 00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:27,359 Speaker 1: helped a little bit, but not a lot. Invisibility was 104 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:30,800 Speaker 1: so bad that taxi and bus drivers couldn't see to drive, 105 00:06:31,160 --> 00:06:34,599 Speaker 1: so transportation along the roads ground to a halt, and 106 00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:37,760 Speaker 1: people abandoned their vehicles because they either couldn't see or 107 00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:42,080 Speaker 1: couldn't get through the resulting gridlock. This completely overloaded the 108 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:45,800 Speaker 1: London underground, which was spared from the smog by virtue 109 00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:50,039 Speaker 1: simply of being underground. The BBC published an account of 110 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:53,279 Speaker 1: Barbara Feuster, who described having gone out to dinner with 111 00:06:53,320 --> 00:06:57,080 Speaker 1: her fiance during the smog, and the smog was so 112 00:06:57,160 --> 00:06:59,839 Speaker 1: thick that her fiance couldn't see to drive home, and 113 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:02,960 Speaker 1: the headlights of the car just reflected off the smog 114 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:06,920 Speaker 1: and couldn't penetrate through it at all, so they used 115 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:09,800 Speaker 1: the sidelights. She walked ahead of the car the whole 116 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:12,760 Speaker 1: way in the range of the sidelights, while her fiance 117 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:15,560 Speaker 1: leaned his head out the window so he could see her. 118 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:19,760 Speaker 1: They also could not stop because the people behind them 119 00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:21,800 Speaker 1: would not be able to see their break lights, so 120 00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:24,000 Speaker 1: if they stopped, that would have meant risk and getting 121 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:28,760 Speaker 1: rear ended. And they proceeded in this manner for sixteen miles, 122 00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:32,720 Speaker 1: just a very long distance. Tracy and I have both 123 00:07:32,720 --> 00:07:35,480 Speaker 1: done some distance running and we know that that is 124 00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:39,000 Speaker 1: a very long distance. That's more than off of marathon. 125 00:07:41,320 --> 00:07:44,200 Speaker 1: So they got home at five in the morning and everything, 126 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:48,200 Speaker 1: their faces, their clothes, their vehicle completely black with soot. 127 00:07:49,080 --> 00:07:51,720 Speaker 1: So this may sound like the extraordinary effort of one 128 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:55,640 Speaker 1: person to get home, but at ambulances and fire trucks 129 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:58,280 Speaker 1: were doing exactly the same thing to get to where 130 00:07:58,280 --> 00:08:01,680 Speaker 1: they needed to go. When the ambulance has failed to run, 131 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:04,760 Speaker 1: people who needed to get to the hospital walked there, 132 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:11,120 Speaker 1: so uh, you know, not so delightful. Patients arrived with 133 00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:14,480 Speaker 1: blackened faces and blue lips from their lack of oxygen. 134 00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:18,720 Speaker 1: Because you remember, the air was unbreathable. Boat traffic on 135 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:21,440 Speaker 1: the Thames ground to a halt, as did air traffic 136 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:24,840 Speaker 1: at Heathrow Airport. Flights were either canceled or diverted to 137 00:08:24,920 --> 00:08:28,400 Speaker 1: other airports that were outside of the smog, and this 138 00:08:28,520 --> 00:08:31,960 Speaker 1: smog disrupted the train schedules as well, and one ferry 139 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,480 Speaker 1: across the English Channel was delayed by fifteen hours. It 140 00:08:35,559 --> 00:08:38,320 Speaker 1: had to anchor off the coast of France because visibility 141 00:08:38,400 --> 00:08:40,920 Speaker 1: was simply too bad for it to get to England 142 00:08:40,920 --> 00:08:44,640 Speaker 1: and Great Britain. Parents were advised to keep their children 143 00:08:44,679 --> 00:08:48,000 Speaker 1: home from school, not just because the air was foul, 144 00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:51,520 Speaker 1: but because people were literally afraid that the children would 145 00:08:51,520 --> 00:09:03,440 Speaker 1: get lost in the smog on their way there. And 146 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:06,840 Speaker 1: because it was almost dark as night outside all the 147 00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:09,840 Speaker 1: time and the impassable roads kept police from being able 148 00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:15,760 Speaker 1: to respond, crime rates skyrocketed. Most sporting events during this 149 00:09:15,880 --> 00:09:19,720 Speaker 1: mog were canceled, including rugby and soccer games. This was 150 00:09:19,760 --> 00:09:22,440 Speaker 1: the first time that an event in Wimbley Stadium had 151 00:09:22,480 --> 00:09:27,120 Speaker 1: been canceled since the facility had opened in On the 152 00:09:27,160 --> 00:09:29,680 Speaker 1: other hand, Oxford and Cambridge were due to have a 153 00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:33,880 Speaker 1: cross country running competition competition and for some reason that 154 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:37,800 Speaker 1: went ahead as planned, but because the runners couldn't really 155 00:09:37,840 --> 00:09:41,000 Speaker 1: see the field, there would be volunteers stationed to yell 156 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:45,760 Speaker 1: at them which way to go, like come here this way. 157 00:09:46,280 --> 00:09:49,400 Speaker 1: I can't imagine what breathing at the rate of a 158 00:09:49,440 --> 00:09:55,439 Speaker 1: speed runner in that air quality must have felt like well. 159 00:09:55,480 --> 00:09:57,920 Speaker 1: In doing the research, I did not find anything about 160 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:01,240 Speaker 1: like what the medical condition of these runners was when 161 00:10:01,240 --> 00:10:04,520 Speaker 1: it got to the end. Oh, sounds horrible. On the 162 00:10:04,640 --> 00:10:06,800 Speaker 1: night of the eighth, a theater in London had to 163 00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:09,400 Speaker 1: cancel the remainder of its performance of the opera La 164 00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:13,440 Speaker 1: Traviata after act one because the building had filled with smog. 165 00:10:15,080 --> 00:10:18,240 Speaker 1: Archivis also we're finding smog in the stacks at the 166 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:23,080 Speaker 1: British Museum, So this sounds pretty horrifying to me. And 167 00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:25,760 Speaker 1: it went on like this for days until the wind 168 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:28,840 Speaker 1: finally came to the rescue and it blew the fog 169 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:30,920 Speaker 1: down the Thames and out to the North Sea on 170 00:10:30,960 --> 00:10:34,000 Speaker 1: Tuesday the ninth. It does indeed sound like a sci 171 00:10:34,080 --> 00:10:37,760 Speaker 1: fi film in many regards. I'm sure Vin Diesel will 172 00:10:37,760 --> 00:10:41,360 Speaker 1: star in the story of the smog. Uh busses and 173 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:44,240 Speaker 1: taxis were able to return to their service fairly quickly 174 00:10:44,240 --> 00:10:47,040 Speaker 1: after the wind blew this stuff away, but rail delays 175 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:50,760 Speaker 1: did persist for a bit so apart from the inconvenience, 176 00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:54,199 Speaker 1: a lot of people died during this mog. A normal 177 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:57,280 Speaker 1: death toll during this period of time in London would 178 00:10:57,320 --> 00:11:00,960 Speaker 1: have been one thousand, eight hundred fifty two people, but 179 00:11:01,120 --> 00:11:05,559 Speaker 1: during the smog, four thousand, seven hundred and three people died. 180 00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:08,520 Speaker 1: The death rate in the East End, which was home 181 00:11:08,520 --> 00:11:10,560 Speaker 1: to a lot of factories as well as being a 182 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:14,240 Speaker 1: very poor and overcrowded part of town, was nine times 183 00:11:14,320 --> 00:11:18,160 Speaker 1: higher than normal. Most of the people who died between 184 00:11:18,160 --> 00:11:21,480 Speaker 1: December five and December t were people who already had 185 00:11:21,559 --> 00:11:24,040 Speaker 1: some kind of problem with their lungs or their ability 186 00:11:24,040 --> 00:11:27,760 Speaker 1: to breathe. The majority was elderly, which was another reason 187 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:32,160 Speaker 1: it wasn't immediately apparent that something unusual was really happening. Uh, 188 00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:34,520 Speaker 1: and often repeated story is that because so many of 189 00:11:34,559 --> 00:11:37,839 Speaker 1: the people who died were already sick, nobody really realized 190 00:11:37,880 --> 00:11:40,280 Speaker 1: that the number of people dying was actually higher than 191 00:11:40,360 --> 00:11:44,520 Speaker 1: normal until the supplies of coffins and flowers started to 192 00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:48,560 Speaker 1: run low because of all of the um funeral services 193 00:11:48,559 --> 00:11:52,000 Speaker 1: that they had to have. I found multiple places citing 194 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:55,559 Speaker 1: the story, but I couldn't find the original source of it. 195 00:11:56,559 --> 00:12:01,280 Speaker 1: But that's too crazy to leave out. Yeah, so people 196 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:05,800 Speaker 1: were basically breathing acid, So, especially for people who already 197 00:12:05,840 --> 00:12:08,760 Speaker 1: had bronchitis or asthma or some of their condition, they're 198 00:12:08,800 --> 00:12:12,640 Speaker 1: already irritated, lungs would just get more and more irritated, 199 00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:15,320 Speaker 1: and they would produce more and more mucus and an 200 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:19,120 Speaker 1: effort of protecting themselves, which this amount of mucus just 201 00:12:19,160 --> 00:12:22,480 Speaker 1: made it harder to breathe. People wound up choking on 202 00:12:22,520 --> 00:12:25,480 Speaker 1: the mucus that their bodies were producing, or they died 203 00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:28,280 Speaker 1: of heart failure as their bodies struggled to support their 204 00:12:28,280 --> 00:12:32,840 Speaker 1: efforts to breathe. Twice as many children died as usual 205 00:12:32,920 --> 00:12:35,560 Speaker 1: for that period of time, and three times as many 206 00:12:35,559 --> 00:12:38,640 Speaker 1: adults between the ages of forty five and sixty four. 207 00:12:39,400 --> 00:12:42,840 Speaker 1: Babies were particularly hard hit as well, since the lungs 208 00:12:42,840 --> 00:12:45,640 Speaker 1: of infants are not as fully developed as older children. 209 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:50,720 Speaker 1: According to the General Register Office, during the weekending December 210 00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:56,200 Speaker 1: so the week after the smog ended, fifty nine percent 211 00:12:56,280 --> 00:13:00,679 Speaker 1: of the increases and deaths came directly from respiratory diseases. 212 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:04,320 Speaker 1: That number jumps to seventy six percent the following week 213 00:13:04,440 --> 00:13:07,559 Speaker 1: when the smog had cleared, but its effects on people's 214 00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:12,320 Speaker 1: respiratory systems lingered, and it's probably no surprise that the 215 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:16,480 Speaker 1: smog also killed animals. The annual Smithfield Cattle Show was 216 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:19,360 Speaker 1: going on in West London, and according to news reports, 217 00:13:19,400 --> 00:13:22,800 Speaker 1: a dozen prize cattle died. Some of these had to 218 00:13:22,840 --> 00:13:26,120 Speaker 1: be slaughtered because they were beyond help. Many other animals 219 00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:31,320 Speaker 1: needed serious veterinary attention. Interestingly, the animals sleeping and dirty 220 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:34,800 Speaker 1: bedding largely survived, and the theories that the ammonia in 221 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:38,760 Speaker 1: their betting neutralized the acid in the air. So the 222 00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:43,400 Speaker 1: This smog had a lot of effects for people in 223 00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:47,000 Speaker 1: London and for life in London afterwards. Even though the 224 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:49,240 Speaker 1: worst of the fog moved out on the wind on 225 00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:52,920 Speaker 1: December nine, more people than normal continued to die for 226 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:56,680 Speaker 1: several more months afterward. By March of nineteen fifty three, 227 00:13:56,720 --> 00:14:01,600 Speaker 1: about thirteen thousand, five hundred more pole than usual had died, 228 00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:05,360 Speaker 1: and it wasn't until three weeks after the smog had cleared, 229 00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:08,480 Speaker 1: when the registrar published the death tolls that anybody knew 230 00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:12,360 Speaker 1: really how bad it had been. People compared this spike 231 00:14:12,440 --> 00:14:15,720 Speaker 1: and death to a cholera epidemic that had struck nearly 232 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:18,520 Speaker 1: a hundred years earlier, and they also compared it to 233 00:14:18,559 --> 00:14:29,880 Speaker 1: the nineteen eighteen flu, which we've talked about before. Even 234 00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:33,440 Speaker 1: when it was conclusively shown that the smog had definitely 235 00:14:33,520 --> 00:14:36,640 Speaker 1: killed people, and killed lots of people. A number of 236 00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:40,440 Speaker 1: politicians acted like smog was just an unchangeable fact of 237 00:14:40,480 --> 00:14:44,240 Speaker 1: life in London. Legislation for cleaner air was decried as 238 00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:47,560 Speaker 1: being a move of over regulation and basically a lot 239 00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:51,600 Speaker 1: of worrying over nothing. In the words of Harold McMillan, 240 00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:55,680 Speaker 1: who was then the Minister of Housing, quote today everybody 241 00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:58,560 Speaker 1: expects the government to solve every problem. It is a 242 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:01,560 Speaker 1: symptom of the welfare state. For some reason or another, 243 00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:04,520 Speaker 1: smog has captured the imagination of the press and people. 244 00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:07,600 Speaker 1: I would suggest we form a committee. We cannot do 245 00:15:07,760 --> 00:15:09,760 Speaker 1: very much, but we can seem to be very busy, 246 00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:12,920 Speaker 1: and that is half the battle nowadays. There were also 247 00:15:13,080 --> 00:15:16,080 Speaker 1: fears that the city, which was still facing rationing and 248 00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:18,600 Speaker 1: debt in the wake of World War two, could not 249 00:15:18,760 --> 00:15:22,160 Speaker 1: afford for people to switch to a cleaner fuel, and 250 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:24,560 Speaker 1: for a while the government even tried to pin this 251 00:15:24,680 --> 00:15:29,280 Speaker 1: spike in deaths on the flu instead of on air quality. However, 252 00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:34,600 Speaker 1: this investigative committee, originally formed to just sort of look busy, 253 00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:38,280 Speaker 1: found that there really was an actual problem that needed 254 00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:41,800 Speaker 1: to be addressed, and consequently Parliament passed the Clean Air 255 00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:45,920 Speaker 1: Act in nineteen fifty six. The Clean Air Act included 256 00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:49,040 Speaker 1: provisions for setting up smoke free zones and to provide 257 00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:52,280 Speaker 1: money to homeowners to convert their heat source to something 258 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:56,240 Speaker 1: cleaner than coal. It also prohibited furnaces from putting out 259 00:15:56,320 --> 00:16:00,560 Speaker 1: dark smoke. This didn't fix things overnight, and there was 260 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:03,880 Speaker 1: at least one other deadly smog in London. There was 261 00:16:03,920 --> 00:16:06,920 Speaker 1: one that killed almost a thousand people in January of 262 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:12,000 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty six, and then another year later another similar 263 00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:15,400 Speaker 1: event occurred. Some of this was because it just takes 264 00:16:15,440 --> 00:16:18,000 Speaker 1: time to change how an entire city is heating itself 265 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:21,520 Speaker 1: in the winter. New power stations and delivery systems had 266 00:16:21,560 --> 00:16:25,880 Speaker 1: to be built to accommodate the increased demand as people 267 00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:28,480 Speaker 1: converted their homes to use different sources of heat. The 268 00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:32,520 Speaker 1: air did get better, though, and the last London smog 269 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:35,840 Speaker 1: that you know was this monumental but not so deadly, 270 00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:40,200 Speaker 1: took place in nineteen sixty two. In nineteen sixty five, 271 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:44,040 Speaker 1: natural gas became widely available in London and many households 272 00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:48,280 Speaker 1: converted to its use. There is still pollution in London, 273 00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:53,480 Speaker 1: you know, just like most industrialized places. Um The smog 274 00:16:53,560 --> 00:16:55,920 Speaker 1: in London now more has to do with summer than 275 00:16:56,040 --> 00:16:59,080 Speaker 1: with winter, because the pollutants of the air are mostly 276 00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:02,880 Speaker 1: tied of vehicle emissions rather than home heating, and they 277 00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:06,399 Speaker 1: react with heat and sunlight. And according to the World 278 00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:10,760 Speaker 1: Health Organization, every year around the world, seven million deaths, 279 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:14,639 Speaker 1: which breaks down to about one in eight are tied 280 00:17:14,760 --> 00:17:18,879 Speaker 1: to exposure to air pollution pollution, So while there's not 281 00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:24,120 Speaker 1: a deadly smog blanketing everything, air pollution is still definitely 282 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:27,200 Speaker 1: a problem. So I'm glad Stewart asked us to talk 283 00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:30,400 Speaker 1: about this. Was that something that I personally was very 284 00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:33,159 Speaker 1: familiar with, although people who lived in London at the 285 00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:36,760 Speaker 1: time like, that's definitely a story that they remember. Well, 286 00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:40,480 Speaker 1: I've seen it mentioned, but I had never really investigated 287 00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:44,840 Speaker 1: it and didn't realize the breadth of it. Yeah, and 288 00:17:44,920 --> 00:17:54,000 Speaker 1: the recency. Yeah, pay so much for joining us on 289 00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:56,959 Speaker 1: this Saturday. Since this episode is out of the archive, 290 00:17:57,040 --> 00:17:58,960 Speaker 1: if you heard an email address or a Facebook U 291 00:17:59,080 --> 00:18:00,920 Speaker 1: R L or something so miller over the course of 292 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:04,600 Speaker 1: the show, that could be obsolete. Now. 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