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Exposure To Air Pollution: Evidence From The Great London Smog, Said."

In December 1952, a thick smog descended on London caused by cold weather trapping airborne pollutants from coal fires used for home heating. The smog was so thick that visibility was limited and animals dropped dead. It dispersed after a few days but had already caused an estimated 4,000 deaths and breathing problems in many others. This event led the UK government to pass the Clean Air Act of 1956 to reduce coal burning. Studies later found the smog increased childhood asthma rates and negatively impacted fetal development and employment prospects for those exposed.

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Rejeanne Monroy
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17 views

Exposure To Air Pollution: Evidence From The Great London Smog, Said."

In December 1952, a thick smog descended on London caused by cold weather trapping airborne pollutants from coal fires used for home heating. The smog was so thick that visibility was limited and animals dropped dead. It dispersed after a few days but had already caused an estimated 4,000 deaths and breathing problems in many others. This event led the UK government to pass the Clean Air Act of 1956 to reduce coal burning. Studies later found the smog increased childhood asthma rates and negatively impacted fetal development and employment prospects for those exposed.

Uploaded by

Rejeanne Monroy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Monroy, Rejeanne V.

May 10, 2018

“ The fourth episode of new Netflix series The Crown depicts a real-life catastrophe, the so-called “Great Smog” or
“Great Pea Soup” that descended on London in December 1952 and caused chaos and death for several days.
How did it start?
The Big Smoke developed in London on Dec. 5, 1952, triggered by a period of cold weather collecting airborne
pollutants, mainly from the coal fires that were used to heat homes at the time, which formed a thick layer of smog over
the city.
According to the United Kingdom’s public weather service, it was so thick you couldn’t see from one side of the
street to the other. In one East London area, it was reported to be so thick people could not see their feet. Animals
dropped dead at a high-profile livestock and farm machinery show, the BBC reported.
When did it end?
The layer of smog dispersed on Dec. 9 when the weather changed. By this time, around 4,000 people were known
to have died as a result of it, many others were suffering from breathing problems and travel was disrupted for days,
London’s Met Office weather service reported.
Following a government investigation, Parliament passed the Clean Air Act of 1956, which restricted the burning
of coal in urban areas and encouraged homes to shift towards cleaner coals, electricity and gas for heating purposes.
What preventative measures did people take?
In 1953, the year after the Great Smog, a group of thousands of doctors urged Londoners to protect their lungs
with sixpence worth of gauze folded into a six-layer mask and tied over the mouth and nose.
“The meshes of the mask, said the committee, would arrest most of the soot, while moisture from the breath, condensed
on the mask, would prevent passage of some of the chemicals that cause lung trouble,” TIME reported at the time.
The British Medical Association backed up the committee, but the government’s Ministry of Health ignored the
doctors’ suggestion. However, London shopkeepers were quick to seize on it and the end of two days, many London
chemists had sold all their gauze.
What are the long-term effects?
A study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine earlier this year revealed that
the Great Smog may have affected the health of young children and unborn babies, resulting in thousands of additional
cases of asthma, Health reports. Researchers looked at responses to a survey about ageing, and studied the health-
related answers given by people who were exposed to the smog while their mothers were pregnant or during their
childhood. The study found that the prevalence of childhood asthma was 20% higher among these respondents than
among those who didn’t live in London at the time.
Also this year, another study concluded that the Great Smog could be linked to developmental problems affecting
people to this day. It calculated that Londoners whose mothers were pregnant with them at the time of the weather
event 60 years ago are 5% less likely than their peers to hold a degree. Men over 50 who were exposed to the pollution
are also 4% less likely to be in any kind of employment.
“The levels of pollution observed during the Great London Smog were very high, much closer to levels observed
during bad days in Beijing or Mumbai than in present day London,” the study, called Lifelong Damage From Foetal
Exposure To Air Pollution: Evidence From The Great London Smog, said.”

Reference:
Samuelson, K. 2016. Everything to Know about the Great Smog of 1952, as Seen on The Crown Retrieved May 10, 2018
from http://time.com/4554972/great-smog-london-crown-netflix/

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