Beware the London Fog!!!

[Steadmund Brand]

Just stumbled on this, thought it was interesting

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/mystery-solved-cause-of-londons-1952-killer-fog-revealed/ar-AAltid5?OCID=ansmsnnews11

Steadmund Brand

[Pcdunn]

Very interesting article, Steadmund. Twelve thousand human deaths-- whew!

[Abby Normal]

Just stumbled on this, thought it was interesting

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/mystery-solved-cause-of-londons-1952-killer-fog-revealed/ar-AAltid5?OCID=ansmsnnews11

Steadmund Brand

I've never heard of it before? Is this true???

[Pcdunn]

I have no reason to doubt it, Abby. Killer fogs were often reported during the coal-burning days. This one is just extraordinary in its toxicity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London

http://www.history.com/news/the-killer-fog-that-blanketed-london-60-years-ago

[Abby Normal]

I have no reason to doubt it, Abby. Killer fogs were often reported during the coal-burning days. This one is just extraordinary in its toxicity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London

http://www.history.com/news/the-kill...n-60-years-ago

That's crazy

[Mayerling]

Very interesting article, Steadmund. Twelve thousand human deaths-- whew!

These underestimates of deaths in disasters affecting modern cities are quite frequent. Ten years ago there was a careful study of the number of dead from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which was usually placed about 500 or so dead. It turned out that by checking burial records and obituaries and notices the actual number was closer to 5,000 dead. The city was determined to get finance for rebuilding as soon as possible, and with it's history of past earthquakes (there had been a particularly short but nasty one in 1865) they knew that a realistic death toll would have put off banks from supplying necessary funding. So they undercounted the dead.

Sometimes it goes in a different direction due to chance catastrophes happening on the same day. On October 8, 1871 Chicago had it's infamous fire (the one supposedly started by a fire in the barn of a Mrs. O'Leary by her cow kicking a lantern on some dry hay). About 200-300 people perished in the city wide fire. Few are aware (outside of Michigan) of the simultaneous "Peshwego" fire in the forests of that part of the state. They lasted several days and killed over 1,600 people. But it was not an urban center and national transportation hub like Chicago (or - for that matter on the West Coast - San Francisco). So the worse tragedy was barely noticed.*

*Similarly at the end of the American Civil War, after Lee's surrender and the assassination of Lincoln, on the same day that John WIlkes Booth was shot and killed and General Joe Johnston surrendered his large army to General William Sherman in North Carolina, the steamboat "Sultana" carrying over 2,200 Northern troops home (many of them survivors from Andersonville military prison) blew up north of Memphis, Tennessee, and in the fire on the Mississippi River some 1,800 Union troops and passengers and crew burned to death or drowned. The "Sultana" (not the "Titanic" or the "Lusitania") was the worst shipwreck in terms of loss of life in U.S. history. But it was barely mentioned in the newspapers of the day, as it happened as the war was winding down, and the nation slowly recovering from the horror of the war and of Lincoln's murder. The tragedy only has become better recalled since the end of the 19th Century.

Jeff

[DirectorDave]

The killer fog is the main feature of an episode of "The Crown" the new netflix series and well worth a watch.

[Ginger]

I've never heard of it before? Is this true???

An interesting response. I'm in the States, and we were taught about it in second or third grade, in conjunction with material about the horrible Pittsburgh smogs (and IIRC air inversions were explained), and what measures were taken to prevent future occurrences. I'm sure children today would never be taught anything so relevant - it's all about self esteem and diversity now.