The Toxic Disaster You Didn’t Learn About in History Class

[@saydvoncripps]

My grandmother couldn't go out as she had a "weak chest" as they called asthma then. She stayed indoors...with a coal fire burning. And they burned more coal in braziers in the streets. They had no idea.

[@oakstrong1]

WORSE: WE DO KNOW the consequences but still carry on allowing to pollution to continue. Big companies have a team of lawyers fighting to delay the installation or upgrade of filters and they are still dumping toxic waste to our rivers and sea: locals are warned not to go swimming when the toxity is too high for even a short exposure - not because it is always toxic.

[@highpath4776]

@@oakstrong1 A lot then was due to Coal being Nationalised with Coal output having minimum totals. Unfortunately the smoke regulations that came in didnt note that Efficient burning of coal reduced output of unwanted products as more was combusted, unfortunately most fluing (inc of Nationalised Electricity) was inefficient and boilers just stoked rather than managed. Even Diesel fumes were.are not clear ones which helped a bit as trains switched from coal burning. From memory Bankside power station in London only burned oil, which was interesting

[@oakstrong1]

@@highpath4776 Thanks for the info. The problem is still the same though. We burn fossil fuels rather than invest money on cleaner alternatives. Energy companies will start only become serious about developing more efficient systems once most of us switch and the next step after that is to develop less polluting manufacturing processes. Demand drives innovation.

[@JohnMassey-q5l]

I live in Lima city Peru, here we get atmospheric inversion from May till October. The number of people who suffer from asthma is mind boggling. In Santiago de Chile, too. The police patrol the streets with infrared visors on the lookout for warm chimney stacks. The police have a standing warrant to enter houses that have warm chimney stacks. An excellent video Simon and team!!!

[@etuanno]

And shut down the fires, that are heating the homes? Or do they measure the smoke to see if it's up to regulation?

[@liquidocelot5976]

Seems an appropriate day to release this given the UK turned off it’s last coal powered power station today

[@Bigbenisntaclock]

Came here to say this! How cool is that?

[@cboyles84]

Really? Well good on them 😁👏

[@CashelOConnolly]

I just hope the British can now afford their heating bills. Have you noticed green warriors tend to be those who can afford the ‘Green Revolution’

[@qwertzuiop1230]

Awesome! Congratulations from Germany

[@Kaltagstar96]

Which is insane because the thing that's meant to be replacing it isn't actually finished yet, you'd think they could just wait until the replacement to the coal powered power station is finished before they close down the one that they just shut down?

[@eli-bt4he]

Slight correction: An inversion layer is by no means a rare occurrence, and is likely the primary cause of the frequent thick fogs in London. It is extremely common on cold winter mornings. What may have been rare in this case was the strength and duration of the inversion layer.

[@feiryfella]

Correct. London is in a basin and is one reason why air quality is so bad. It happens where I live to a lesser degree. I have athsma so its terrifying!

[@russlehman2070]

I lived in Denver, Colorado, USA for most of my life. Denver is frequently subject to temperature inversions, primarily during fall and winter. When coming into Denver from the mountains with a temperature inversion present, it is strikingly visible. There will be a layer of brown air close to the ground, with a sharp demarcation between the brown layer and the clearer air above it.

[@wolfmantroy6601]

Yep. Fairbanks AK has them often in the winter.

[@teresabenson3385]

Missoula Montana too.

[@highpath4776]

@@feiryfella Also get it out in Dagenham Freezing Fog due to the marshes and the relative temp of the Thames which never quite warms up in winter but is warmer than the freezing air temps. If it stays around depends on the winds, so high pressure for a long time holds the fog in, we have not had so much recent years - maybe the use of glass in the tall london city buildings rather than brick changing the heat pattern and retention of the city ?

[@jakeme9911]

Should do a similar video on the rampant cancer caused by 3M dumping waste in Oakdale Minnesota

[@TotoGeenen]

And Antwerpen!

[@Strider91]

As someone who live in Woodbury, I'd love to see that!

[@Lucy-gu8uk]

I was living in London during this fog. I was two years old and my sister was born on Dec 6. Of course I don't remember it, but my mother used to talk about it.

[@foo219]

I'm glad you survived! It's a vulnerable age to encounter something like this. Clearly your lungs were better than mine. I spent my first three years in hospital.

[@freyaw89]

My mum was born in london 2 weeks before the smog, I had no idea how deadly it was!

[@boristhedespot3473]

I lived in london for 15 years and at times you could taste the pollution on the air

[@toastercatx]

I stayed with a friend in Camden for a week 15 years ago and was horrified that my boogers had turned pitch black

[@nlwilson4892]

Only some times? I lived there 3 months and you could taste it all the time and I was mostly on the outskirts. I think you have just got used to it and only notice when it is particularly bad.

[@stefanpredl6849]

wonder if i should visit china for tasting 50% BatteryElectricVehicle adoption air and some of the strictest air pollution laws. Cant belive it.

[@LordMarcus]

Imagine surviving the entire war only to choke to death under those black skies.

[@SoreSurvival]

Imagine surviving both wars just to get smoked by fog

[@highpath4776]

@@SoreSurvival Most in WW1 men had been gassed so the flu after WW1 and the smog in the 1950s finished them off

[@associatedblacksheepandmisfits]

Last smog I saw was in Sussex early 60's , they still used the old air-raid sirens on pea soup fogs then.

[@ellenmendoza7246]

My parents talk about this subject....when I was grown up... the River Thames stank and the buildings were black... when they started cleaning up the buildings.. it was a real shock I didn't realize the buildings weren't black

[@solomon7722]

As we get boil water advisories in Georgia because of a burning chlorine plant.

[@kitefan1]

Missed that news about the explosion.. Usually we only boil water because of e-coli. This no longer happens because the chlorinate our section of the town water. Hope you are well.

[@BaconBastard9000]

I only got an advisory so reduce exposure to the outside, especially if you have health issues.

[@sjenny5891]

Because of the hurricane?

[@Dommifax]

i heard there was a shelter-in-place advisory regarding the chlorine though there's also a boil water advisory because of a pumping station failure (iirc) in atlanta - are the two related?

[@etuanno]

Why boil the water? The chlorine in it isn't that bad, the chlorinated organic compounds however, oh boy! But those don't go away just because you boil the water. I read an article about it and I hope they shut down that factory for good. 3 serious incidents in 20 years is way too much!

[@Naftoor]

“Mostly preexisting conditions” Man they’ve really been pulling that card to minimize tragedies for generations huh?

[@annec781]

Here in northern Nevada, when we get a temperature inversion, we get a freezing fog, locally called "pogonip." The Native American tribes used to go to a higher elevation to protect their elders and children. During that time, they ban use of wood burning stoves unless they are used as a primary source of heat.

[@DesertFernweh]

I have seen it when driving up to see my dad in Reno, he had to leave that area because the air was so bad .

[@annec781]

@@DesertFernweh Lake Tahoe is warmer and clear when we get those inversions.

[@piparalegal2019]

I've come across references to the London fogs in Dickens novels. I've heard The Great Fog of London referenced in videos before. This was fascinatingly horrific.

[@highpath4776]

yes but that predated the main coal burning other than domestic coal (which was not insubstantial)

[@IAmAlgolei]

I learned about this in history class in the 70s, but there wasn't much information and it was easily forgotten. Pretty much just a mention that stirred a few questions that the teacher couldn't answer, other than to say "pollution is bad" and "we never know what unexpected consequences there will be unless we thoroughly investigate things before we do them".

[@leonb2637]

I have seen and heard documentaries of this London Great Smog of 1952 a number of times over the last several decades. This was a good summary of that terrible event. It was indeed a turning point for the environment even to today with bans of high pollution cars in the London area and other cities in the UK and in the world (LEZ's). For many the use of tobacco, exposures to toxic chemicals from workplaces, from service in WW I & II likely added to their doomed fates.

[@gregorymalchuk272]

That makes no sense. The exhaust of cars is cleaner than ambient air in London and LA.

[@highpath4776]

@@gregorymalchuk272 might be now with CATs , wasnt then, but we didnt have many cars, just 7000 diesel buses every day

[@foo219]

The lesson learned was apparently to pour more money into denying pollution is bad, because it doesn't seem like much ELSE is being done.

[@eloisepharmacist]

They covered this in an episode of The Crown - it made me cry 😢

[@NobbingNobby]

😂😂😂 Get a grip.

[@wolfmantroy6601]

If true that is concerning. Perhaps have the dosage on your med.s evaluated.

[@aidencox790]

@@wolfmantroy6601 That's a needless nasty comment. Have you ever heard the words EMOTIONS AND EMPATHY. Some people visualise as if it is real and happening and put themselves into the shoes of those whose lives were either ruined or taken. Maybe you might consider that you are not the same as other people - in a truly negative fashion.

[@wolfmantroy6601]

@@aidencox790 I have zero empathy for you overly emotional women. You just proved my point with your silly comment. Now keep that hole under your nose closed until your opinion is asked for.

[@leathernluv]

Boise Idaho suffers from regular inversions. I liver there for about 10 years, and I remember a few times the public was told not to go to work or travel at all for the time. Sometimes a week or more.

[@Shell4694]

I remember how hard it was breathing during black summer in Australia. It went on day after day, it was like trying to breathe through water. I felt so sorry for those with asthma and people that couldn't get away from the smoke 😔

[@thesausagecontinuim1971]

nothing ever changes until people die, our societies moral compass is a bit askew, money first, people second?!?!?

[@mariedinkler8542]

More like people last😢

[@paulc6766]

So far only 6 have supported this. It should be MILLIONS. And our politicians are not able to be made accountable.

[@jefferyhanderson7849]

Because people are lazy, greedy, and don't care about things that don't concern them. Even when mass deaths happen, people are still lazy and greedy to make any significant changes before something else happens, and most people move on to that. Like how people forgot about Myanmar after Ukraine happened. And how people are starting to forget Ukraine after Palestinian happened.

[@jacobgleisner5630]

More convenience and stability. Those are the real killers of people. Probably close to money though

[@damonwilks8799]

Lets think about this real fast .... Most times when something needs to be done it's too late because it was a true unknown. Other things not so much. So it's not always money first. Although that being said once some disasters happen they profit afterwards due to knowledge gained and healthy living becomes toxic. Continuous patients.

[@DigitalLazarus]

Brilliant as always, Simon and utterly fascinating. Thanks to you and the team.

[@lyndabignell9660]

I remember the smogs around the industrial north in the 1960s. I remember being let out of school early and told to get home quickly. No buses running so had to walk. Had to feel our way around buildings to figure out where we were. Scarey stuff when you are in your early teens. Amazed that I've reached 75 but then my family emigrated to a cleaner country. NZ first and now living in beautiful Adelaide, South Australia.

[@pooryorick831]

Wow. I had no idea. I guess I've heard references to it, but I never understood how deadly it was. It's a warning we should all heed. 😳☮️🙏🏻🕊

[@highpath4776]

quite simply, until recently the British History curriculm was basically From Plato to NATO, hence Mid 50s and beyond not covered, and Modern History seemed to start in the 1970s.

[@squirrellymcbutterballs3510]

Favorite fact : at the West Ham greyhound track, the smog was so bad that the guy operating the mechanical hare lure could not see the track, so the dogs actually beat the hare. They canceled the meet.

[@ronsimpsonll9739]

The human race is profoundly adept at closing the barn door long after the cows have come home and left again...

[@geoffbarry9540]

Yep, put me down for this one. Approaching my 6th birthday at the time (15 January 53), I have no personal recollection of the event. What I do remember is the years of chronic bronchitis I suffered from then until probably 1960 and the onset of puberty (although I also recall a recurrence as late as 1967). When I wrote about this in my autobiography in 2022 I could almost taste, smell and feel the bronchitic condition of my childhood lungs - especially the pain of trying to cough up the horrible phlegm generated in them. And, of course, there were many later though lesser instances of smogs before the clean air acts took hold. I remember cycling off to school in 1959 in a fog so thick that I rode into a car on the other side of the road before I could even see it clearly - at about three miles an hour!

[@etuanno]

My grandmother was in London in the early 1960s as an exchange student from Austria and she said the smog was unbelievable. She was born in 1944, so it was roughly in 1960-1962.

[@gregorymalchuk272]

What struck me about the UK was that the country was so poor that people were still heating ther hovels with the open grate burning of coal in individual rooms as late as the 1970s. We hadn't done that since probably the mid 1800s in the USA.

[@highpath4776]

@@gregorymalchuk272 Wasnt really being poor, its how houses were built. open fires were quite efficient, a downstairs one would warm the upstairs, though indeed enclosed burners were probably better these were rarely marketted. Coal was relatively cheap to, compared to electricity. Warm Air district systems were unreliable. Our flats were built in 1960 and more still to the mid 60s had coal fires - cleaning, lighting of them was the wives job so no wonder they didnt go to work with all that to do. The flats also meant our coal heated someone elses flat.

[@Flight_of_Icarus]

It's weirdly supernatural sounding. Kinda inspiring in a macabre way. A fog that creeps into a coastal city and kills all it touches. Sounds like something straight out of Lovecraft.

[@Netherlands031]

Some more focus on primary sources would be nice. Like, showing actual photos from 1952 london instead of random stock footage

[@highpath4776]

remarkably few decent photos , or film , that isnt licenced, or indeed much taken. The BBC wasnt really into showing it, neither the newsreels. I think it had been common , but less long lasting , in years past, so initially wasnt noteworthy

[@invisi-bullexploration2374]

The worst traffic accident in US history is something I remember seeing on the news when I was a kid. I think it went down like this: This was in TN and temperatures had plummeted. A paper plant straddled a highway and was releasing a ton of vapor. This meant all three factors were about to combine into something incredibly unpleasant and unprecedented. The vapor *would* have just floated into the jetstream... If not for the pressure system holding it firmly down. So this giant, white wall floated onto a highway during the start of Christmas shopping season... The carnage was as I recall, severe. Something like 50 to 60 deaths as hundreds of vehicles rear ended each other.

[@jooleebilly]

When I visited London in 1991, the world still had acid rain and an ozone hole so the statues were striped black and white. I think all cabs and buses had to use diesel fuel, as it was believed that since it didn't go into the upper atmosphere so it didn't increase the ozone hole.. All I know is that I got blackheads pretty quickly even after washing my face several times a day. Every time I blew my nose, there was gray and black stuff in it. I think it was the same in Edinborough, Dublin, and Belfast. Super happy to hear the UK gave up its last coal powered plant. Caveat: I haven't visited in 33 years, so I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, possibly a LOT of things.

[@gregorymalchuk272]

Europe going all-in on passenger diesel automobiles was great for fuel economy but terrible for air pollution. Gasoline cars from the late 1970s and early 1980s in the USA were way cleaner.

[@jamesmull8579]

The same thing happened in Donora, Pennsylvania four years earlier.

[@sjenny5891]

Didn't Simon do a video on that? Or was it Fascinating Horror?

[@jamesmull8579]

@@sjenny5891 it's probable that someone has by now. It's a good topic for these types of videos.

[@michaeljohnryan7801]

Never knew of this case, shocking! Thanks for shedding light on it

[@WhiteRoseYorkshire]

I learnt about this in history class. Mind you, I was in school in the 90s, and it seems like school doesn't teach anything these days.

[@bremnersghost948]

Agree, My younger kids seem to have learned very little of what we did in 80s/90s, Youngest especially talks a different language lol

[@paultidwell8799]

I love this Channel. Thank you for all you do.

[@bulwinkle]

It wasn't just London. I remember pea-soupers in Leeds when I was a child. Your hand almost disappeared if you stretched out your arm. My mother and I felt our way home from school along fences and hedges.

[@EmilyBieman]

This video ought to be shown to kids in schools. I recall at no point in my schooling was it ever mentioned that breathing in ANY type of pollutant, whether it be smoke from a fire, sawdust, or chemicals - they all do harm to your lungs.

[@timsimmons5190]

We definitely learned about this in history class here in south carolina

[@kathyroux7386]

How have I never heard of this?

[@gregorytaylor41]

Another amazing episode! I can't imagine basically breathing sulfuric acid for days.

[@wesrrowlands8309]

Here in Pennsylvania we had the same type of thing happen near Pittsburgh and it was around the same time too but I don't think it was anywhere as deadly as this.

[@Titot182]

The great smog of London - yes we learned about it all right! My year 7 geography teacher was a former pupil at my school in Harrow Weald. He recalled the Harrow and Wealdstone Train Crash in 1952 occurring at the same time. He said something along the lines of us kids being fortunate enough not to have experienced it... Well, until you end up in Jakarta for more than a few weeks!

[@GaryJohnWalker1]

Actually this was well known and taught for quiote a while - as a kid in the 60s and 70s I certainly learned about this. But it's seldom been mentioned for years, maybe as many people's view of those now distamnt days have grown rosier.

[@schnetzelschwester]

I'm at the same age. As a little child I lived in a workers' settlement in the Ruhrgebiet between a foundry and a hydrochloric acid factory, my lungs are still impaired 60 years later. When my little sister almost died of air pollution we moved to a city near Netherland border where we could smell cow dung instead of coal fires.

[@hotmess9640]

@@schnetzelschwesteryeah you can’t get lung health back

[@ndruark]

How many channels is Simon the host for?

[@user-st8gb9bm6q]

I live in Denver Colorado and for days we had the worst air quality on the planet.

[@891Henry]

We had the same thing in Vancouver, Canada but it was from the forest wildfires last year.

[@TheKalaxis]

Smog is nasty stuff. My home town used to be so bad for that shit that locals are still nicknamed "Smoggies".

[@jennifersoutherland631]

I had an uncle who was a baby during this, and he was left with lifelong lung damage and recurring pneumonia. He had to use oxygen from an early age. His family left soon after this, but the damage was done.

[@carminia824]

Temperature inversion is very common in Stuttgart, Germany. This has to do with the fact that the center of the city is in a bowl-shaped valley. No idea how they survived the era of wood and coal. But they did.

[@highpath4776]

Check average age death stats, did older people move away ?

[@hectorsmommy1717]

Next do a feature on the Donora Smog. Same situation but even more deadly. It happened in Donora, Pennsylvania in 1948 and killed 1 out of every 700 residents in a shorter time period, 4 days instead of the 5 days of the London Smog that killed 1 out of 2000 people.

[@Jamietheroadrunner]

Thanks for letting me know. Never heard of it before Edit: Fascinating Horror actually has a video on it

[@ladyeowyn42]

Both are covered in atmospheric chemistry classes, of course. That’s where I learned about these.

[@hectorsmommy1717]

@@ladyeowyn42 Makes sense. I learned about the London Smog in a general weather and climate class back in the 70's but didn't know about Donora until The Weather Channel did a documentary on it. I think it was part of the "When weather changed History" or something similar.

[@hectorsmommy1717]

@@Jamietheroadrunner The Weather Channel had one too. Not sure if it is available anywhere. It was part of their "When Weather Changed History" series.

[@Jamietheroadrunner]

@@hectorsmommy1717 there are multiple docs on it. The Fascinating Horror was good but brief

[@donsandsii4642]

I remember leaning about killer smog in London in the 19th century in history class (USA)

[@highpath4776]

less Smog (was some) in C19th but Fog was around a lot in colder times and narrower buildings and streets in what is now Central London.

[@roofgardener7897]

Back in the early 1970's, Nottingham started banning home burning of coal (in the days before central heating) and I remember us having to switch to coke and other coal alternatives. But I did not know the background to this, and hadn't heard about the London disaster at all. (I was only about 5 at the time, and we didn't have a TV). Thanks for this documentary

[@gregorymalchuk272]

That is what strikes me as shocking about the UK. The country was so poor that people were engaged in open hearth burning of coal on a room by room basis as late as the 1970s. We hadn't done that in the USA since probably the 1850s.

[@richardbutler4654]

We had a coal fire in a house built in the 1960's (village outside Nottingham) As an asthmatic I remember having to wear a smog mask at age 3-6 when we moved away from the low lying area by the Trent

[@maddiethomas5892]

I've never heard of this. My grandmama was 10 years old but she lived in Scotland. I'll ask her if she remembers this.

[@ChickpeatheTortie]

At 13 hooray you finally said it. The air is London is absolutely rancid and in the past 2 years I've had to be picked up off the pavement four times because of asthma attacks - I'm on 5 different asthma meds

[@mommatanya1]

Such a cheerful video! 😢

[@simonhadley8829]

How many people then were "fog deniers" similar to our Covid deniers today?

[@franceskronenwett3539]

My parents were living in London at that time and told me about this horrific event. A contributing factor to this disaster which was not mentioned in this video was the decision to replace the electric trams with new diesel buses. These belched out black toxic fumes making the whole situation worse.

[@EGSBiographies-om1wb]

I learned about *the great smog* in an episode of *The Crown* .

[@RikAindow]

The streets are paved with blood. A statement which rings true to pretty much everything that we have learned over hundreds of years.

[@mohammedsaysrashid3587]

Wonderful introduction...of that London disaster 1952 12000 murdered due toxic gas expansion as lethal fog...

[@karensexauer6138]

The poor veterans of WW1 who managed to survive the gas attacks would have had no chance in this fog.

[@nlwilson4892]

Most of those exposed to gas yet "survived" didn't live that long. My great uncle and everyone that was gassed alongside him died 7 years later, all within the space of a year.

[@photosbyjf]

I read of this someplace before. I think it was a murder mystery and fog was a backdrop for the story

[@timbert4672]

It didn't just happen in London either, this well documented smog disaster happened there but many parts of the UK were plagued by temperature inversions causing exactly this. I live in what used to be a cotton town in the north which is set on/within a valley and the reason we were first given free access to the privately owned moorlands either side was so that the people who lived here had somewhere to go where they could breathe clear air when the toxic smog became stagnated close to the ground. The legacy of these is still visible on many old stone and brick buildings, the chimneys on top are black in color unlike the rest of the building which is left over soot and pollutants from that era. The reason the other bricks below the gutter lines are clean is because they were all sandblasted back in the 60's in preparation for a visit from the queen, but the chimneys didn't get done due to budgeting and time constraints.

[@donaldkelly3983]

In my grammar school history class we did learn about this disaster as an example of air pollution.

[@ericshelby8813]

Simon apparently covered the same topic on his Sideprojects channel a few years before. Whoops. I don't really fault Simon. Even he admits that he can't always keep track of what he covers on his channels.

[@harrisonmiller6475]

Can u do a video on Giant Hogweed?

[@hypsyzygy506]

And the Bhopal disaster.

[@a.s6668]

Great channel mate keep it up

[@superchile9640]

You’re right. I never heard of this…

[@hanglee5586]

Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster 👺 in jolly London.

[@highpath4776]

The joys too of the coking plants - Nantgarw in South Wales, Manvers in South Yorkshire were just some

[@jimidkfa]

am i correct that it was this disastrous event from which "smog" (smoke and fog) was first used as a term? clearly, smog had been around before then, i mean the coining of the term.

[@gracietrish7453]

I live in the Monongahela River valley in Pennsylvania. In 1948, we had smog in one of the towns Donora because of a local zinc plant.

[@SandrA-hr5zk]

Don't even need to look to developing countries... California's Central Valley has some of the worst air quality in the country and world. And we're the heart of America's agriculture too. We often end up with an inversion layer blanketing the valley in the winter time. Now that wildfire season is nearly year round, we're blanketed in smoke from that as well. It's like living at the bottom of a bowl, nothing escapes.

[@highpath4776]

Lived in a rural villiage in Oxford in the 1980s. the evening smog was terrible with all the houses burning coal and wood

[@diegoknyte]

The big smoke. Couldn’t think of anything better?

[@unocoltrane2804]

I wonder how many Chinese are dying in Beijing from their smog problem. The air pollution issue hasn't been treated, just moved to the other side of the world. Out of sight, out of mind.

[@GreatSageSunWukong]

their choice and they are building 47 more coal fired power stations, meanwhile they are also filling their streets with badly made electric cars that frequently burst into flames setting fire to things around them and theres no way to put a lithium fire out

[@unocoltrane2804]

@@staticbuilds7613, I’m referring more to how the western nations act like we are causing irreparable damage to the atmosphere and decide to implement taxes to “combat” climate change, but won’t do anything to china. Leads me to believe that the climate crap is overstated, they’re afraid of china, or both. Anything to steal our hard-earned money, I guess. I know there’s more to it, but still, government is untrustworthy in nearly every aspect.

[@CeleWolf]

It hasn't moved lol It's been dealt with here and has not yet been dealt with there...

[@gregorymalchuk272]

Chinese power stations are both cleaner and more efficient that almost anything in the USA, and most power stations in Europe. The smog has greatly declined in China in the past 16 years. The Beijing Olympics was a major catalyst for change.

[@mill__er]

Not sure if this happens elsewhere, but in Australia most country people call cities “the big smoke”, despite none of them being smokey, foggy maybe, but not smokey.

[@highpath4776]

Coking for Town Gas probably been forgotten about, we had Gas Works Everywhere - Fulham, Beckton, being a couple of the bigger ones in London but plenty more smaller

[@BitTwisted1]

I vaguely remember reading a few years ago about some declassified documents which related to the 1956 smog, probably in new scientist. Apparently it was already well understood that the sulphur in coal made the smogs much worse and generally higher quality low sulphur coal was used in London and especially Battersea Power Station. Battersea PS had been built with aesthetically pleasing but way too short chimneys, so it didn't send the smoke above the winter inversion layer. The power output of Battersea correlated well with the severity of smogs. However in 1956 the issue was made much worse by the government of the day desperately trying to pay down the war debts, by exporting the low sulphur coal and allowing cheaper high sulphur coal to be burned instead, especially in Battersea PS. I doubt they did this knowingly but the law of unintended consequences often catches people out.

[@ranmount]

great video.

[@ringlhach]

Simon calls temperature inversions rare, but that really depends on the local geography. Unless we get pressure fronts strong enough to stir things up, they're a fact of life in the mountain US.

[@raquellofstedt9713]

Pasadena California was even known for it by the native Americans. Fresno has suffered from it for all it's history. Hardly new.

[@moritz7179]

another very compelling reason why we should all heat our houses with heat pumps

[@Mark2024Hola]

London in the 80s/90s and even early 2000s was gross. Every time I went there, I came back with grime in my nose and under my fingernails -It was like a miasma of filth - sorry for the description. It does seem better now though. Interesting video. Thanks.

[@GreatSageSunWukong]

its the cars that cause that, go anywhere with a lot of cars and you will get that, it was especially bad before leaded petrol was banned.

[@Mark2024Hola]

@@GreatSageSunWukong Yup agreed. I only own a bicycle. I remember that when the Olympics took place in Beijing, they had to ban traffic for some time to make sure the air was healthy for the athletes.

[@GreatSageSunWukong]

@@Mark2024Hola healthy should be written "healthy" surely its still shit there because of all the coal fired power stations and factories, they have over 1,161 coal power stations with plans to build another 47 in the coming few years, the next nearest country is india with 284. banning traffic in China is like us banning plastic straws, its a drop in the ocean, completely meaningless.

[@DarkWarchieff]

Did a vid on Bhopal?

[@arjanzweers6542]

He already did yes

[@AeroGuy07]

He already did, but I don't know which one of his channels it's on.

[@TheManLab7]

@@AeroGuy07that's a question everyone wants to know because he's got so many.

[@vic5015]

He already did.

[@Dexy83]

The government was slow to react? Ignored the people? Never. 😒

[@paulhyde1834]

Yes, I learned about it!

[@lockinhinddanger934]

Funny enough I actually did learn about this in school, and I'm an American (world history class) it really should be a good show of why pollution isn't a good thing.

[@Fomites]

And it wasn't just lung/respiratory damage - this pollution penetrates all tissues of the body causing inflammation and induces pathology in many organs including blood vessels causing strokes and heart attacks.

[@curlyspikes7114]

My dad remembered this and said that when he went to the cinema, the screen was obscured by the smog as it drifted in to the theatre

[@sparkplug1018]

What I’ve always wondered about this event was, why was there no panic from the public when people started dropping? Obviously air pollution wasn’t understood, but this was only 34 years after WW1. The horrors of gas being used in this conflict was well known both from veterans stories and the media. And was so horrific even Germany wouldn’t use it again in combat. Which really begs that question, why weren’t the people horrified and demanding action while it was happening

[@highpath4776]

It wasnt really reported, and as the wind changed it litleral blew over

[@don8029]

Tv series 'The Crown' did a great job on this

[@hollieBlu303]

As a Brit, it's strange. We''re a tiny island that has shifted our entire world enormously...some of these things are badges of pride...but so, SO many are marks of our failure. And that just sucks.

[@justincarrel7930]

This was actually covered at my school, though I'm an american, I guess it was in an attempt to push home the concept of the dangers of capricious environmental neglect.

[@rogerbrown1750]

I was about 5 when we used to play outside in this fog in Croydon Surrey,we survived.

[@JamesGorman-q3k]

I learned about this in history.

[@GilmerJohn]

The US city of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania had a smoke problem during wwII. In the first year after the war the street lamps were on during noon. BY 1950 "Smoke Control" became the law.

[@AnimeShinigami13]

As someone with asthma, this is a NIGHTMARE 😱Holy fucking shit, no wonder Tom Lehrer has an entire song about pollution!!! And sulpher dioxide is a nightmare to me because of my asthma. Those poor people, their lungs must have gotten scarred ick!

[@jovanweismiller7114]

Your remark that in the 1950s you could do whatever you wanted is bollocks. The first law attempting to deal with London's air pollution problem was enacted in the reign of King Edward I in the early 14th century. Edward died in 1307, 645 years before the "Great Smog".

[@gregorymalchuk272]

What was his law?

[@KbIMbIFbIMPA]

One of famous victims of the Great Smog was Charles Herbert Lightoller the second officer on board the RMS Titanic

[@mrcthulhu47themad45]

Now that you covered this how about a mini series of disasters and there storm of the century variants

[@hithere7382]

We learned about 5th December 1952 in the 5th or 6th grade in middle school at a private school in Arkansas USA. We learned about it again in a different private high school, go rockets.