The Fog That Killed 12,000 People
How can smog affect the life expectancy of people? Scientists have investigated the causes and repercussions of The Great Smog of London in 1952, and continue to study the effects of air pollution...
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[♪ INTRO] London is famously foggy. Sometimes that can mean a wistful stroll or another excuse for a cuppa tea, but when fog mixes with the smoke and chemicals produced by industry, it becomes something new: smog. And for a couple of centuries, London’s smog could kill. Really bad smogs could kill a thousand people in a few days, but no one did much about it until 1952, when a five-day smog in London killed an estimated twelve thousand people. It was called The Great Smog of London, and it helped wake up the country and the world to the dangers of unrestricted pollution. Fog is just a cloud that forms down here on the ground, which by itself isn’t that bad; you might not be able to see well when you’re driving, or you might not be able to la...
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[♪ INTRO] London is famously foggy. Sometimes that can mean a wistful stroll or another excuse for a cuppa tea, but when fog mixes with the smoke and chemicals produced by industry, it becomes something new: smog. And for a couple of centuries, London’s smog could kill. Really bad smogs could kill a thousand people in a few days, but no one did much about it until 1952, when a five-day smog in London killed an estimated twelve thousand people. It was called The Great Smog of London, and it helped wake up the country and the world to the dangers of unrestricted pollution. Fog is just a cloud that forms down here on the ground, which by itself isn’t that bad; you might not be able to see well when you’re driving, or you might not be able to la...
