The great fog that covered all of London in 1952 turned out to be smog. It was created by Londoners who heat their apartments, as well as the emission of harmful gases from factories and car exhaust fumes into the atmosphere. The murderous fog took a deadly toll on the people of London in just five days. How many people died from the London smog in 1952? How exactly was it explained what the fatal fog was? Check the history of the Great London Smog and find out how the past events influenced today's fight against smog in Poland.
On December 5, 1952, London was wrapped in a dense fog that surprised residents. Yes, they were used to the presence of fog in the city but had never experienced anything like it before. The fog was really thick and the air was getting colder. Londoners, therefore, began to massively insulate their apartments, using huge amounts of coal. Each subsequent day was even worse. Even though it was noon, the sky was still dark, as if the night had not yet passed. The fog settled densely and low, and visibility decreased to just one meter. At that time, not only the open-air performances were canceled - the entire transport was halted, and many service outlets were closed. However, this was not the end of the problems. More and more Londoners began to complain about breathing problems.
Londoners grew stressed. Yes, the fog was a normal phenomenon for them, but there was something disturbing about this situation. More and more people came to the hospital with respiratory problems. Some of them died. The Londoners did not know then that the air in the city was contaminated with a huge amount of gases and dust resulting from the burning of coal in furnaces. The coal used by humans was of poor quality, so more and more poisonous substances were released into the atmosphere with each passing day. At first, there was no sign of a tragedy, but soon after that, Londoners became convinced of the catastrophic gravity of the situation. People began to die because the high concentration of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere irreversibly damaged their bronchi and lungs.
Between December 5 and 9, 1952, more than 4,000 deaths were recorded due to damage to the respiratory system. Both elderly and sick people, as well as very young people, died. In the following weeks, the death rate did not decrease at all - another 8,000 Londoners died due to inhaling smog. So it can be easily estimated that the total number of victims of the Great London Smog was over 12,000. Information about the terrible situation in London spread around the world, which resulted in a general panic about smog. It was the event that started the fight against the emission of harmful gases into the atmosphere.
The fog appeared in London in early December, cooling the air. It was so cold that the townspeople started to smoke coal in their houses, but it was not of the best quality. This coal contained harmful sulfur compounds that escaped into the air. In no time the atmosphere became contaminated with harmful gases. It was December so the temperature was dropping all the time. Residents threw coal into the furnace, and the air became more and more polluted. There was also a temperature inversion above the city, so the air closer to the ground became cooler than the air above. The cold and still air was bogged down beneath its warmer layer, so they couldn't mix with each other. It is for this reason that the pollutants from the combustion of coal did not float and could not be dispersed in the atmosphere. They got stuck to a maximum of 200 meters above the street level of London.
The main cause of this tragic situation turned out to be sulfate in the atmosphere. It was because of them that the ordinary fog turned into a thick smog. The smog was caused not only by people heating houses with coal but also by exhaust fumes from cars and steam locomotives. The smog was formed from sulfur dioxide and then turned into sulfuric acid. It was he who injured thousands of human lungs and resulted in the death of so many Londoners.
In November 2016, the mystery surrounding the appearance of thick, deadly fog in London was finally solved in detail. A group of scientists from Great Britain, China, and the United States proved that nitrogen dioxide played a key role in the whole tragedy. It was a byproduct of hard coal combustion which facilitated the formation of sulfates. The second cause of the catastrophe is that the fog remains in the air for too long. At first, the drops were large and the sulfates dissolved in them were diluted. However, while the water began to evaporate more strongly, the droplets decreased - and the concentration of sulfuric acid in the mist also increased.
In 1956, Great Britain introduced regulations limiting the emission of poisonous gases into the atmosphere. The Clean Air Council was established to control air quality and pollution levels since then. The goal of the organization was, of course, also intensive work to eliminate smog. Devices measuring air pollution began to appear in London. The height of the chimneys has been increased in the largest industrial plants. Of course, this was not the end of preventive actions. In order to reduce the emission of toxins from the furnaces, special filters were also used in them. The so-called smoke-free zones and funding were offered for the replacement of stoves and fuel change to better quality fuel.
The regulations on limiting emissions of harmful substances introduced in London have significantly improved the standard of living of the inhabitants. The number of waste emissions was reduced, but the price for this change was the highest - smog took the lives of 12,000 people. Did the terrible tragedy in London teach us all? Yes, we are more familiar with the topic of smog and aware of the dangers posed by the emission of harmful gases into the atmosphere. Reality shows, however, that awareness is not everything - you still need to take action! Unfortunately, the latest UN report shows that carbon dioxide emissions are not decreasing at all - they are increasing at an alarming rate from month to month.
There is really little time to implement the changes. Experts inform that the world will face a catastrophe if the governments of the countries do not take decisive action to reduce the emission of harmful gases. In Poland, over 45,000 people die every year due to smog. Does a tragedy like that happened in Great Britain need our country so that we can finally recognize the seriousness of the global ecological crisis? He concerns all of us. If we don't make changes now, it might be too late someday.
Bibliography:
- Peter Brimblecombe: The Big Smoke. A History of Air Pollution in London since Medieval Times, Methuen Publishing, London 1987
- Collective study: Smog. Health consequences of air pollution, Wydawnictwo Lekarskie PZWL, Warsaw 2018
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