The Great Smog of London
By: Mitch Tulley
History
• Between December 5th and December 9th
1952 a great smog enveloped London,
England. It was the worst fog/smog in
history. It was the usual fog that falls over
London mixed together with smoke and
exhaust from near-by factories and homes.
History Continued…
• This mixture was a deadly one and resulted in the
death of 12,000 people. Not much is known as to
what happened during those five days, but once
the smog lifted, the damage could easily be seen.
4,000 people had died either during the time the
smog was present or within a week after, and
people were still dieing months after, so that when
the final death tally came in it was right around
12,00 people dead.
Impact on Today
• Since the Great Smog several acts have
been put into place to make sure that
something like it never happens again.
Parliament passed two clean air acts in 1956
then in 1968, which are still in place today.
Continued…
• Today London has 80 monitoring stations
dotted all over the city. These stations
measure the levels of carbon monoxide,
nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants to
analyze how deadly the fog is on those
particular days.
Works Cited
• BBC News, The Great Smog of London:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2545
759.stm
• Google Images: The Great Smog of London:
Http://www.google.com/search?um=1&hl=en&rls
=com.microsoft%3Aen-us%
• About.com: The Great Smog of 1952:
http://history1900s.about.com/od/1950s/qt/greats
mog.htm