Donora, Pennsylvania

A severe episode of atmospheric pollution occurred in Donora, Pennsylvania, during the period Ocotober 25-31, 1948 (3). Twenty persons died, 17 of them within 14 hours on October 30. 

In 1948 in Donora, Pennsylvania and again in London, England, in 1952, air pollution killed and injured large numbers of people - 14000 injured in Donora and 4000 killed during one weekend in London. 

The Great Smog of London in 1952 was not an isolated incident. Other such reducing-type killer smogs have occurred in Meuse Valley, Belgium (1930), Donora, Pennsylvania (1948), and again in London (1962). The death toll blamed on the air pollution in these cases was not as high. 

DES (diethylstilbestrol), xiii, 106, 115, 206 detoxification, 34 developmental toxicity, 103 dibenz(a,h)anthracene, 112 diet, 5, 13-14,106 as exposure pathway, 13-14 chemical composition of, 5 effect on absorption of chemicals, 29 natural carcinogens in, 229-31 role in cancer, 116—20, 154-6 role in cancer prevention, 230 Dioscorides, 39 dioxin, xiii, 54, 164, 180 distribution of chemicals in body, 31-2 DNA damage, 150-3, 156 Doll, R. (Sir), 117-20, 155, 177 Donora, Pennsylvania, 81 dose, 16,39,48,71 absorbed, 27-31, 161 acute, 160... 

The earliest reports of acute environmental incidents were of air pollution emergencies. In the Meuse Valley of Belgium during 1930, 63 persons died and thousands became ill from sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid air pollution (French 1989). The Donora, Pennsylvania, smog disaster in 1948 left 20 dead and more than 5,000 ill (French 1989). 

A killer smog episode occurs on October 26-31 in Donora, Pennsylvania. 

In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for ensuring the safety of the environment within an industrial plant. Environmental problems caused by a facility that reaches beyond the fences of the facility become the concern of the EPA. Environmental problems can become lethal to human life if left uncontrolled. This is what happened in Donora, Pennsylvania in 1948 that resulted in the deaths of 20 people. Donora was situated in a low spot of the surrounding terrain. A meteorological temperature inversion blanketed the area for five days. Near Donora, a steel mill, sulfuric acid plant, and zinc smelter poured sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. The weather inversion kept the sulfur dioxide close to the ground and people sickened and died. 

Prior to 1960, there was little concern about air pollution and httle effort toward its control in the United States, in spite of some dramatic episodes in which many people suffered as a direct result of polluted air. For example, in October 1948, the town of Donora, Pennsylvania, was overcome by five days of air pollution that caused almost 6000 residents to become ill and 18 to die. In the past, smoke, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and organic vapors were emitted into the air from industrial facihties with htde apparent thought about their harmfiil nature as long as they were scattered into the atmosphere and away from human smell and sight. 

Health concerns about air pollution can easily be documented as early as the seventeenth century, attributable to industrial development as well as to the fuel sources for domestic heating and cooking. It took such twentieth-century incidents as the 1952 London smog case and the 1948 Donora, Pennsylvania air pollution inversion, both of which produced increased particulate matter pollution leading to increased mortality, to stimulate regulatory action and steps to control air quality. 

Three of the most acutely health-threatening episodes of air pollution in the twentieth century were associated with high-pressure areas. These notorious episodes occurred in the Meuse Valley, Belgium, December 1-5, 1930 in Donora, Pennsylvania, October 25-31, 1948 and in London, United Kingdom, December 5-9,1952. In these cases, strong atmospheric inversions associated with anticyclones helped trap pollutants such as SO2, resulting in increased air pollutant concentrations. These elevated concentrations caused elevated rates of illness and mortality (Wilson and Spengler, 1996). 

The hazard of episodes of high air pollution was recognized in the first half of this century, when episodes of extreme air pollution were associated with increased deaths and morbidity in the Meuse Valley, Belgium, in 1934 (8) and in Donora, Pennsylvania, in 1947 (9). However, it was the air pollution episodes of December 1952 in London that provided the first quantitative air pollution exposure data and the most convincing evidence of the hazard. 

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