Donora smog

The next day, Townsend and Bloomfield went on to Pittsburgh for a meeting of the Industrial Hygiene Foundation. There Townsend declared that the Donora smog was... 

Snyder, Death-Dealing Smog, pp. 35-36, 152-155 Donora Smog Held Near Catastrophe, New York Times, Dec. 25, 1948. Inadequacy of funds Richardson to Burke, Nov. 18, 1948. 

The first victim of the Donora smog, Peter Starcovich, is laid to rest as factory smoke rises in the distance. (Photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Courtesy of Getty/Time and Life Pictures.)... 

London Smog Disaster and Donora Smog Disaster Nitrogen Oxides Sulfur Oxides Carbon Monoxide... 

Certain areas are unusually susceptible to air pollution disasters. One during 1930, in the Meuse Valley of Belgium, caused the premature death of over 60 people. Another in 1948 at Donora, Pa., caused 20 deaths. A third resulted in the deaths of 22 people at Poza Rica, Mexico. The greatest occurred Dec. 5-9, 1952, in London, England. Over 4,000 people are estimated to have died from respiratory ailments as a result of the smog. Each of these occurred in an industrial valley at the time of a temperature inversion.16... 

The first death occurred on the third day and on the fourth day, the number of deaths increased so that a temporary morgue had to be set up. The town s eight physicians were too few in number to attend to all who were affected. All during this period, the plants continued to spew pollution, containing particulates, sulfur dioxide/sulfuric acid, zinc, lead and cadmium, into the air. It was not until the morning of the 30th that the Donora Zinc Works shut down and later that afternoon, rains finally arrived and washed the smog from the air. 

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. 

Midnight at noon. The smog-darkened city of Donora on October 29, 1948. (Copyright Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2009, all rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.)... 

The real difference between Los Angeles and Donora was economic. One was a major metropolis that controlled its own fate. The other was a factory town with an economy governed by a distant corporation. The fight against California smog began in earnest only when local elites, suffering... 

Public Health Service Plans Survey in Pennsylvania—40 Donora Sufferers Fly South, New York Times, Nov. 19, 1948 J. G. Townsend, Investigation of the Smog Incident in Donora, Pa., and Vicinity, American Journal of Public Health, vol. 40, pp. 183-189 (1950). 

H. H. Schrenk, H. Heimann, G. D. Clayton, and W. M. Gafafer, Air Pollution in Donora, Pa, Epidemiology of the Unusual Smog Episode of October 1948. Preliminary Report, Public Health Bulletin No. 306, Division of Industrial Hygiene,... 

I949> PP- 86-103 Snyder, Death-Dealing Smog, p. 35. Part of chemical industry Zinc is separated from ore as a vapor and condensed, while other smelting processes collect liquid metal. Much of it was sold as a powdered oxide chemical, with paint companies as major customers, rather than as a metal. A zinc plant upriver from Donora belonged to DuPont. 

Snyder, Death-Dealing Smog, p. 28—35 Donora Asks U.S. Inquiry. ... 

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. 

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