Death by smog: London's fatal four-day pea-souper Thousands are estimated to have died after a thick polluted fog engulfed London for four days in December 1952. The smog was so thick that visibility was just one metre. Those with respiratory conditions, the young and the old were most vulnerable. In response, the government passed the Clean Air Act to reduce the use of smoky fuels. Witness speaks to Dr Brian Commins, who worked for the Air Pollution Unit set up at St. Bartholomew's hospital in London in the 1950s. Death by smog: London's fatal four-day pea-souper
It'll be back soon with all the hipsters and their trendy, unregulated wood burning stoves! They'll probably still blame diesels, though.
I vividly remember that damp, acrid, suffocating smog. Don't remember that we had time off school though! Really enjoyed a book by Boris Starling called Visibility which was set during that smog and in an area of London I knew well (then!).
The Government introduced the Clean Air Act of 1956 in the era of the Ringlemann chart whereby smoke emission density was measured in 20% increments of obscurity, with a scale of 1-5.It covered industrial processes where coal in all its forms were burnt and the release of grits and unburnt hydrocarbons were always likely to be present.Sulphur dioxide emissions, depending on the sulphur content of the fuel,was an ever present emission although some industry had abatement processes treating emissions Gas/Coke derived from coal produced at Coal Oven sites was another source of pollution,along with power plants and the like but these tended to have their own codes of practice with the Ringlemann measurement as a reference for emission density.I think Ringlemann1 was regarded as the reference to minimise pollution. The majority of the smoke emissions were due to domestic fires burning bituminous coal which it was thought to be responsible for the London smog incident created by the burning of such fuels in fog.Further legislation came into being with the mandatory introduction of smokeless fuel defined areas by local authorities where coke, phurnacite or anthracite could only legally burnt. By the mid 1960s the discovery of natural gas led to a reduction in domestic open fires burning solid fuel and solid fuel central heating was replaced by gas fired boilers as the natural gas grid was expanded. During the wartime years,In the urban areas, a smog environment was always a feature of winter fogs
I survived this smog as a child. It was a thick almost yellowy green, and we were sent home early from school. I think bonfire night in November must have added to the mix.
Another survivor. Was on boys service in Woolwich from 1947/49 and its difficult to believe how bad it was.
My grandmother moved out of London at this time and, as Tav4 says, she speaks of it as being incredibly bad. A childhood condition and emergency surgery had left her with only one working lung and her new husband, my grandfather (freshly back from Malaya) took her out of London to live on the coast. Glad to say that she's still with us in her late 80s.
