The Great Smog of London

24:50An average villain can no more do his job if he cannot see than any other professional. That is not to say, however, that maintaining law and order in the intense gloom isn't challenging. Even for the police to keep track of themselves proves almost impossible. You have first responders, emergency workers, and it was just a complete nightmare. I spoke to a man who was a cadet with the Metropolitan Police at the time, and his job was to be in radio contact with the police officers who were in the cars, driving in the cars. and he would have this big map of London and each car had a little, kind of like a, I don't know, a little plastic disc and it would have the number of the car and he would move the discs around on what locations they were at and they lost track of everybody.

25:39Nobody knew where anybody was. There are a few scattered reports of burglars taking advantage. One thief is said to have shinned up the drain pipes of three adjoining properties in a particularly wealthy neighborhood without a soul seeing him. There are other anecdotal accounts too. The police officer who I spoke with, he was in North London, and he was stationed on a little shopping row, and he was so petrified he found one of the emergency lights for police officers that had a phone, you know, going directly to dispatch. And he had it in front of him, so he backed up and he got into a doorway of a shop, and there was somebody there breaking glass on either side of him.

26:22and the guy couldn't see him and he couldn't see the guy and there was nothing he could do about it. But the glass was breaking a couple feet away and the guy was grabbing whatever was on display from this fabric shop.

26:35For some, it brings back unwelcome memories of the Blitz when blackouts and bombed-out buildings prompted a surge in criminal activity. But now, in December 1952, the fear of crime seems to be worse than the criminality itself. And while journalists fill their columns with tales about ailing cattle or wayward mallards, the police are involved in much grislier work, but so far goes mostly unreported. They deal with a host of calls from doctors and worried relatives reporting non-responsive residents in properties. Time after time, the police assist in gaining access to private homes to discover chillingly similar scenes of lone individuals, many of them elderly, who have dropped dead in their domestic settings.

27:25And it's not one or two here and there. It is hundreds every day.

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28:24It's first thing in the morning on Sunday, December the 7th, 1952. A nurse in a regulation short-sleeved blue dress and starched apron takes a few minutes to compose herself in the bathroom mirror at work. She was not due on shift at the Royal London this weekend, but the call has gone out for anyone who can to come in and help. She rinses her hands in a basin that is dark grey with smuts, or tiny flakes of dirt carried in the air. The grime is thick enough to write her name in it, but she accepts that she and her colleagues are facing a losing battle in maintaining their usual impeccable standards of hygiene on the ward.

29:05Right now, there are bigger concerns. After smoothing back her hair, she puts on a fresh, hospital-issue muslin face mask. Although, how effective it is, who can be sure? She turns on her heel and steps back into the tumult of the ward. Normally so breezy, now it swirls with the same eddies of dirt, causing harm to the communities that live beyond the hospital walls. Eddies that seem to thicken and swell every time a door opens to let someone in or out of the ward. There is not a free bed inside. The nurse has even heard that they've started using the chapel to accommodate the overspill of patients.

29:45Every bay in her ward is occupied, a symphony of coughing and spluttering. Those patients with sufficient strength to do something other than lie still and fight for breath, call out in distress, or demand updates on what's going to happen next. Such are the pressures that the usually strict rules about keeping male and female patients apart are overlooked for now. Most of those coming in are men of a certain age. Some have insisted on going out in the smog to try to get supplies for their families, or because work has demanded it, or have been stranded when their usual means of transport failed to run.

30:23But there are a good number of women too, and as she walks between the beds, it is one such lady whom the nurse now approaches.

30:34In her 70s, she was brought in by ambulance a couple of nights ago. She is still and quiet. Her face is ashen grey, not from the muck in the air, but because her body has been unable to get her blood to circulate. As doctors bustle about her, triaging new patients at top speed, the nurse feels the woman's forehead with the back of her hand. She is cold to the touch. Now she tests for a pulse, but she cannot find it. She calls for one of the doctors, but she knows already that there is nothing more to be done. So the progression was you really started to see the majority of the dying, for lack of a better or word, happening by Sunday.

31:23A lot of the older folks, the pensioners, people who had bronchitis, just people who were in poor health. In due course, a doctor will sign off on a death certificate. But smog isn't ever specified as the reason for the demise because it doesn't fit any of the accepted categories demanded by the paperwork. As a result, preexisting bronchitis is commonly given as the official cause of death, as are pneumonia, heart failure and tuberculosis. But the people in the hospitals are becoming aware that smog is the real killer at work here. In terms of mortality, Monday proves the most devastating single day.

32:04Eventually, it will be found that 900 people lose their lives to the smog in this one 24-hour period. That brings the tally to almost 3 ,000 since Friday morning. But the government is still resisting highlighting the dangers to health The last thing they want is public panic And besides, it's not smog on the death certificates So who's to say that's what really is behind the surge? Not to put too fine a point on it Many of those who are dying might well have faced their end soon enough anyway

32:40So for now, the true extent of the smog's health impact remains poorly understood Even as many among the population have no doubt that something serious is afoot The people who knew how horrible this was Were the folks who owned all of the flower shops The funeral wreath makers And then the undertakers And the people who owned the cemeteries, graveyards, the churches Because they were running out of space they were running out of flowers and they were running out of coffins. As Londoners wake on the morning of Tuesday the 9th of December and pull back their curtains, they are greeted by a joyous sight.

33:19Finally, the weather has changed and a cool breeze is blowing through the city. It's still a work in progress, but with each new gust, the smog dissipates. The relief of being able to breathe again is palpable. People return to work and parents pack their children back off to school. The capital gets on the move again. The residue is significant, but there is no great concerted cleanup. What does another layer of muck matter on a city already full of dirt-scarred buildings, especially when it's only a matter of time until the next smog. Normal life resumes, and the memory of these challenging few days soon fades for many.

34:03Anywhere there is Christmas to look forward to, arrangements to make, presents to buy. It's estimated that each day of the smog has cost London's commercial sector dearly, perhaps as much as£75 million in today's terms. But there are still a couple of weeks to make good on some of those losses. For some, though, simply reverting to normal is not an option. The death toll is contested, but it's safe to say that there are thousands of families mourning loved ones. A process made all the harder because of the difficulties in arranging funerals. One afflicted household is that of 14-year-old Rosemary, whose dad died three days after having to take a long walk home from his job, working in an airline hangar.

34:52She said, we were having such a hard time trying to find anything, an undertaker who could even come and take him, that her mom just locked his body in the parlor in the living room at the time. So he was there for a couple of weeks, and this was just a man she, Rosemary adored, adored him. So if you can imagine that, that's what it felt like for a lot of these families.

35:18After the smog, London is divided between those determined to put it all behind them and those who simply can't. An uncomfortable split. It's unfortunate to be desensitized, but London was desensitized to this, absolutely. And things just sort of moved on. The fog cleared, underground went back online, taxis went back to puffing out carbon monoxide, and everything just sort of leveled out. With so much else to deal with, the government is keen to move on too. Not least the two ministers most directly in the firing line of questions as to why London has not been better prepared. The Minister of Health, Ian McLeod, and future Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, currently serving as Minister of Housing and Local Government.

36:05Macmillan, in particular, is adamant that it is not in the power, or even in the remit, of the government to do much about the issue. It literally was the cost that you paid for living in the wonderful city of London in the 1950s, and Macmillan absolutely believed that. But as December turns into January, evidence grows of the great death toll the smog has wrought. And it's not as if it came without warning. Back in 1930, for example, the Moose Valley, a heavily industrialized area of Belgium, suffered a four-day smog. Though the population of the affected area, standing at around 10 ,000, didn't remotely compare with that of London Some 60 people perished and thousands more became ill Shocked, the Belgians almost immediately established a public inquiry By studying autopsy records, it firmly established the link between air pollution and health What had long been suspected anecdotally now had a solid basis in science Another event across the Atlantic is even fresher in the mind.

37:13In 1948, just four years ago, an industrial Pennsylvanian town called Donora faced its own tragedy. As a result of smog, 20 out of a population of 14 ,000 died, and not far off half the rest of the population suffered respiratory difficulties. Whereas London has adopted a stance of stoic acceptance The response in the U.S. was strikingly more proactive This smog was treated like, I mean, an emergency Like, almost like September 11th It was incredible They had triage centers They had every police officer you could think of from neighboring cities They're helping people when they were driving Just try to get home To have their wheels kind of get as close as they can to the curb So they could direct traffic it was treated like a true emergency.

38:02And it got the attention of the US government. And this was sort of the beginning of the clean air movement.

38:11The job of holding the UK government to account, however, falls disproportionately to a small band of dedicated politicians, many of them low-profile backbenchers. They are supported by a few campaigning groups and civic organizations like the Coal Smoke Abatement Society, founded way back in 1898 by individuals alarmed by growing pollution. But despite their concerns, there is no immediate great push for answers from the government, from either the public or the press, who seem content that the recent smog, like its many predecessors, is little more than an unavoidable nuisance. But when those in charge are forced to acknowledge the scale of excess mortality, pressure starts to build.

38:56First, Health Minister McLeod reports that deaths in London in the week of the smog totaled 4 ,700, up by almost 3 ,000 from the previous year. Later, he concedes that fatalities from smog to the end of December are in the region of 6 ,000, more than the annual deaths from road accidents in the whole of the UK. Such admissions bolster the efforts of those MPs determined to ward off a repeat of the December catastrophe. What they lack in political heft, they make up for in acumen and resolve. The British government, they now insist, has had no excuse for complacency when it comes to air pollution.

39:36And something must be done. Winston Churchill had just come into power the year before. You know, and I want to make clear, this is a bipartisan issue. Labour was in charge for six years before that, so it's not like the Tories had all of a sudden invented air pollution. Labour didn't do much about it either. Still, they struggled to harness popular support, and soon the new cycle moves on, diverting the public's attention elsewhere. At the end of January 1953, for example, Northern Europe suffers devastating flooding that leaves over 300 dead in the UK and some 1 ,800 killed in the Netherlands.

40:16violence. Unlike the seeping peril of the smog, the floods exert their harm in a more immediate and obvious manner. There is a concerted emergency response to the rising waters, rather than the call for resilience that the smog has been met with. Then in March, all eyes turn to a troubling criminal case. An unprepossessing middle-aged man by the name of John Christie is tracked down and arrested after disappearing from his home, 10 Rillington Place, in a down-at-heel corner of Notting Hill. Subsequently, evidence is uncovered that he has murdered several women there. Among the remains are those of Christie's second wife, Ethel, whom he seemingly killed a little more than a week after the great smog released its grip.

41:06His crimes terrorize the popular imagination far more than the silent killer that spilled across the city for five days in December. It is Christie who becomes the greater hate figure, even though his total of victims is lesser by thousands than the smog. Swathes of column inches are devoted to telling the story of the Rillington Place murders, while the smog garners little more than a notice or two here and there, mostly in summaries of parliamentary business. So the crossover between these two stories for me was so strong. And the reason is when the two stories, the smog and Christie, when they managed to intersect in Parliament, you see so clearly that, you know, in March when he goes on the run in 53, there is a lot of opportunity for self-reflection for the government, for the people in London about what happened with all of these deaths.

42:01And they know another smog is coming. They come every year and around November, December, at least. And you have an opportunity to do something. to make a change. And instead, it was clear that the government would rather tackle a clear and present danger, like a serial killer that was capturing the headlines, than an impossible systemic issue like air pollution.

42:26Despite these distractions, the diligence of campaigners ensures that the great smog will mark a turning point in Britain's approach to air pollution after all. In May 1953, the government announces the formation of a committee to look into the issue, headed by the engineer and industrialist Sir Hugh Beaver. For the first time, a British government, albeit rather reluctantly, acknowledges smog as a matter of significant public concern, an admission that in turn focuses popular sentiment. Yet even as the committee collects and considers its data, the government continues to minimize its responsibility.

43:06In November 1953, for example, Macmillan writes in a private memo that, Today, everyone expects the government to solve every problem, before adding dismissively, For some reason or another, smog has captured the imagination of the press and the people.

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44:03Get ready to save big with up to 60 % off brands like Rag & Bone, Levi's, Adidas, and Free People. Join the Nordic Club to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first, and more. Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack. In 1954, the Beaver Committee releases its report. It includes a series of recommendations, such as increased use of smokeless fuels and smokeless zones in urban areas. The pursuit of clean air, the report suggests, is the modern equivalent of the Victorians' quest to provide the public with clean water.

44:45Tucked away in the report is a table recording the number of deaths associated with the smog of December 1952. An early version put the death toll at 12 ,000, but something curious has happened between that version and the final published one. Then in 54, there was a revised report that came out, and that revised report really played down all of the disaster stuff that happened and played down the deaths. So you've got one chart from the Ministry of Health in the initial report that shows a huge spike in deaths because of the fog. I mean, they literally lay it out day by day by day, and you just hear spike, spike, spike, spike, and then it's normal.

45:26And then in the revised report, clearly, you know, the government had gotten to the authors of the report because then we have this revised report that the chart is much lower with deaths where they end up with the 4 ,000.

45:41All those extra deaths, according to the official line, were down to an outbreak of influenza, although there is scant evidence for the theory. And the government continues to drag its feet. There are simply too many demands on the public purse and the government's time to undertake such a comprehensive reappraisal of infrastructure that the problem ultimately demands. But Macmillan realizes they must be seen to be doing something. His big gesture is to begin selling masks, even though government research has already shown they will do little to protect wearers in a smog episode. But finally, thanks to persistent pressure from campaigning MPs on all sides of Parliament, in 1956, the Clean Air Act is passed.

46:27A landmark piece of legislation, it is the first in the world to look specifically at reducing the volume of harmful smoke pumped into the atmosphere. But it is far from a complete solution. Its principal focus is to reduce levels of pollution and better dissipate what is produced so as to avoid the kind of deadly build-ups London has seen. So, for instance, it encourages the building of power stations with taller chimneys, so as to send pollutants high into the atmosphere. And though that ameliorates the immediate problem, it disperses what is known as acid rain more widely. Something that has devastating effects for everything from human, animal and plant health to built environments.

47:13Overall, though, the Act is considered a significant step in the right direction. Our modern understanding of the environmental challenges posed by fossil fuel usage, such as global warming, is not the same hot topic in 1952. But the Act at least takes the protection of the atmosphere, as it is then understood, seriously. The Clean Air Act was the blueprint for other countries to follow. of ways to move forward, to untether, to ungraft yourself from coal, which was not good. Behind the scenes, you have so many tenacious people who are trying to do the right thing. And I was so proud from both sides, the lawmakers in 52, and it was just maybe a dozen of them at the time, how hard they were working.

48:00It seems to have an almost immediate impact. In 1956, there are 40 smogs reported in London that together claim a thousand lives. The following year, the instances of smog fall by about half, and continue on a downward trajectory. Other nations follow suit with their own legislation. In 1963, the USA, the world's largest economy, passes its own Clean Air Act. Even as its population, industries, and car usage all grow, the Act is estimated to cut air pollution by some 70 % in the years to come. Back in the UK, there are still blips. In the early 60s, a four-day London P-Super takes 750 lives. But there will never again be anything approaching the Great Smog of 1952.

48:52More clean air legislation follows, in 1968 and then in 1993. The latter comes just two years after another December smog in London is estimated to have killed 150.

49:09It is a reminder to avoid complacency against an enemy that continues to pose a formidable threat to public health, not just in London but across the planet. The World Health Organization, for instance, estimates that air pollution kills some 2 million people a year in rapidly industrializing China. And in 2020, after years of campaigning, the death seven years earlier of nine-year-old Londoner Ella Kissy Deborah becomes the first in the UK to be officially recorded as caused by air pollution. The work prompted by the Great Smog of 1952 is not only incomplete, but is as urgent as ever. The event, however, continues to hold a curious place in the collective memory.

49:52On the one hand, it provoked arguably the first serious long-term response to a long-term problem. Along with the Moose Valley and Donora incidents before it, the events of December 1952 helped move the debate along. Yet, few Londoners growing up today are aware of what occurred in that distant winter. Even if they have heard of the Great Smog, they rarely realize the extent of suffering that blew in with it. but to forget is surely a dangerous mistake. I think about London and I think about why there aren't memorials. It's just been brushed under the rug. There just wasn't that response. And so now my hope is that we understand the impact that pollution has on human life, on your life.

50:40And this is one of those incidents. You know, throughout history we've had these events and some are forgotten and some aren't. And so, you know, I hope that that is something, because it led to many changes around the world, I still feel like it's just disappeared from what many people know, and it was a landmark. So that is what I hope, is that just because you can't see it, it doesn't mean it's not hurting you. And that's the lesson for me from The Smog of 1952.

51:15Next time on Short History Up, we'll bring you a short history of the Vatican. In a world of darkness and of fear, of violence and of intemperance, in the heart of Rome there still is a small little square of 108 acres, still holds out a hand of friendship and a message of trust in a better future. That's next time.

51:48If you can't wait a week until the next episode, you can listen to it right away by subscribing to Noisa+. Head to www.noisa.com forward slash subscriptions for more information. This episode is brought to you by Starbucks. That is fire. Whoa, that's good. This might be the drink of the summer. Okay, I like this one too. I'm rocking with it, okay? Try it for yourself. Starbucks refreshers concentrates are coming home. Find them in the coffee aisle and make it yours. You want to get your backyard summer ready, but you don't want to break the bank? Wayfair gets it. Planning on dining al fresco or relaxing poolside?

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