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Scientists Have Figured Out Why London Fog Killed 12,000 People

posted by martyb on Tuesday November 22 2016, @08:41AM   
from the what-acid-rain-feels-like-for-fish? dept.

Phoenix666 writes in with a story from sciencealert:

In December 1952, a dense fog fell over London that lasted roughly four days, dropping visibility and making it hard to breathe. At the time, residents paid little attention to the strange event, writing it off as just another natural fog, but once it lifted, people started dying.

The event – referred to as the Great Smog – led to the death of roughly 12,000 people, and the hospitalisation of up to 150,000. But how could something like this happen? 

[...] Nw [sic], over 60 years later, an international team of researchers might have finally figured it out, as part of an investigation into China's modern air pollution issues.

The answer is actually pretty terrifying – it turns out people were breathing in the fog equivalent of acid rain.

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Original Submission

• Re:Killer fog (Score: 2) by number11 on Tuesday November 22 2016, @08:25PM

  by number11 (1170) on Tuesday November 22 2016, @08:25PM (#431458)

  Are you sure the stove wasn't burning coke?

  I remember my parents' house in the '60s used a coke stove to heat water. Other heating was sometimes coal fireplaces, but mostly electric heaters.

  Probably depends on where you were. The house I grew up in had a hand-stoked coal furnace until the late '60s, when a natural gas line was laid. Rural New York, coal from nearby Pennsylvania. Some of the neighbors used fuel oil or had kerosene heaters, that's paraffin to you UK types (or both.. I remember my mom was rightfully worried about the unvented kero space heater at my best friend's house, the place stunk of kerosene). I don't remember anyone using electric heaters, they were too costly to operate and mostly house wiring couldn't handle the load anyhow.

  Parent

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