Great Smog of London documentary

The citizens of London learned a hard lesson about the effects of air pollution on December 5, 1952. As people shoveled coal into their stoves, they had no idea that a tragedy would occur shortly. Vast amounts of smoke exited the chimneys, which in combination with light winds and moist air created a thick, toxic smog. The phenomena caused several thousands of deaths from pneumonia, bronchitis, tuberculosis or heart failure during the following week. Learn more information in this three part documentary.

London smog

The weather in London had been unusually cold for several weeks leading up to the Great Smog disaster. Because of the cold weather in 1952, the households were burning more coal than usual to keep warm. Over one million of home stoves in combination with the emissions from industry surrounding the city released into the atmosphere massive amounts of smoke. A light fog dominated the city on December 5, but that was nothing unusual. As night came a combination of light winds, cool air and high humidity at ground-level formed a thick fog. Temperature inversion made the phenomenon motionless and it started to mix with chimney smoke, which contained toxic sulfur-dioxide, making the Great Smog. Read more about the aftermath of the event here...