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The Great Smog

The Great Smog

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 You’ve heard of the London fog, but how about the “London Smog”? Well, it killed at least 8,000 people and sent another 150,000 to the hospital. How was this? In the years after World War II, England had rebuilt its factories and power stations, and all were burning coal. London residents, too, were burning coal in their homes to keep warm. But England had sold its premium coal to pay war debts and was using a poor grade with high sulfur content. On a particularly cold winter day in 1952, with furnaces and fireplaces working overtime, a fog rolled in. Fog is just a cloud on the ground. It forms when humid air cools and its water vapor condenses. This time, there was also a high pressure area that sat over London. Together they trapped the coal emissions, and the fog became the “Great Smog.” Sulfur dioxide in the smoke mixed with water vapor in the fog to form a dilute sulfuric acid. As the water evaporated, the fog became ever-more acidic and stank of rotten eggs. Breathing it damaged lungs and led to serious lung infections. Hospitals overfilled. People began dying in such numbers that undertakers ran out of coffins. Finally, 5 days after it began, wind blew the toxic fog out to sea. Today, scientists are using lessons from the Great Smog to mitigate the effects of smog in China and other industrializing areas that depend on coal for electricity.
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