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Why the Great Smog of London Was Anything but Great?

In early December 1952, a great mass of cold air moved off the English Channel, draped itself over London like an icy comforter and then simply stayed put.

Trying to keep warm, Londoners piled extra coal into their fireplaces, sending plumes of black, sooty smoke into the air that mixed with clouds of exhaust from factories and coal-burning power plants. But instead of rising into the atmosphere and dispersing, the smoke stayed close to the ground, trapped by the cold air above.

Over the next five clays, a city already famous for its smog experienced the worst air pollution it had ever seen. A thick haze hovered over the streets, penetrating homes and offices. Public transportation nearly ground to a halt, and at night the visibility was so poor that some parts of London became unnavigable. Indoor concerts were canceled because the audiences could not see the stage.

And then the smog lifted and the problems were over. Or so it seemed.

"There was no sense of drama or emergency," said Dr. David V. Bates, who at the time had just started work at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London. "It was only when the registrar general published the figures three weeks later that everybody realized that there had, in fact, been a major disaster."

Some 4,000 people died of respiratory ailments in those five days, and perhaps an additional 8,000 in the months that followed. Most of the victims were especially vulnerable by reason of age or illness. Now a new study, based on lung tissue samples preserved from the victims of what became known as the Great Smog of 1952, has provided insights into why the smog proved so deadly. It also illustrates the continuing danger of airborne pollutants known as particulate matter, experts said, for which environmental officials in the United States are considering new regulations.

Writing in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, the researchers said they found high concentrations of fine particulate matter in the lungs of 16 people whose deaths were attributed to the smog.