Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Great Smog of London, or Great Smog of 1952, was a severe air pollution event that affected London, England, in December 1952.A period of unusually cold weather, combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions, collected airborne pollutants—mostly arising from the use of coal—to form a thick layer of smog over the city.
The 1962 London smog was a severe smog episode that affected London, England, in December 1962. It occurred ten years after the Great Smog of London , in which serious air pollution had killed as many as 12,000 people.
The Great Smog of 1952 in London. Early in December 1952, a cold fog descended upon London. Because of the cold, Londoners began to burn more coal than usual. The resulting air pollution was trapped by the inversion layer formed by the dense mass of cold air. Concentrations of pollutants, coal smoke in particular, built up dramatically.
Piccadilly Circus during the Great Smog of London, 1952. Pea soup fog (also known as a pea souper, black fog or killer fog) is a very thick and often yellowish, greenish or blackish fog caused by air pollution that contains soot particulates and the poisonous gas sulphur dioxide.
An experiment was carried out using intense air pollution similar to that of the 1952 Great Smog of London. The results from this experiment concluded that there is a link between early-life pollution exposure that leads to the development of asthma, proposing the ongoing effect of the Great Smog. [35]
"The Smoke" / "The Big Smoke" / "The Old Smoke" – air pollution in London regularly gave rise to pea soup fogs, most notably the Great Smog of 1952, and a nickname that persists to this day. [116] [117] [118] "Londongrad" due to its popularity with Russian oligarchs. [119] "Moscow on Thames" for the same reason.
In December 1952, the Great Smog of London led to the deaths of 12,000 people. [66] This event, and similar ones such as the 1948 Donora smog tragedy in the United States, [ 67 ] became one of the great turning points in environmental history because they brought about a radical rethink in pollution control.
London's poor air quality was an issue for centuries, but between Dec. 5 and 9, 1952, a perfect storm of weather patterns helped create a tragic event that killed thousands, later sparking the ...