Why The Great Smog Of 1952 Can Be Considered A Landmark?

Pollution continues to pose an enormous threat to residents of urban cities worldwide. In the August 2008 Monthly Update, it is stated that approximately 800,000 deaths each year can be attributed to outdoor air pollution, making pollution the single most harmful environmental hazard to human health in urban areas (Kallman). The fact that pollution kills hundreds of thousands of people each year alone portrays just how dangerous living in these conditions can be. Kallman writes about a study which proves an increase in upper respiratory diseases, cardiovascular mortality, respiratory mortality, and low birth weights when exposed to air pollutants (August 2008: Monthly Update). These can be very serious diseases and complications which, when contracted, can lead to death or very serious illnesses. There

However, with Whitehead’s local knowledge, his survey was able to track down hundreds of residents who had fled out after the weeks after outbreak. Snow in other hand; his survey had focused only on the Soho residents with majority had consumed with Board Street water before getting ill. Authorities at that time, they thought it was caused all because the “smell”. John’s theory convinced nobody at first. It had taken many years made public health authorities to believe that cholera is a waterborne disease. The map itself had debunked the theory of miasma and it made the city removed the pump handle in the end and stopped spread out more disease.

Since human’s activity, pollution becomes a big problem in the world. There are a lot of part of pollutions include water pollution, light pollution and air pollution. Air pollution is happened in our life. The United States is also a victim of air pollution. In 1943, Los Angeles photochemical smog event occurred. The whole of Los Angeles was covered with smoke. There are about 400 people died and a lot of fruits in orchards began to wither.

What would later become one of the deadliest plagues the world had ever seen started innocuously enough in the spring of 1918 spreading through populations on both sides of the Atlantic. Remarkable for its highly infectious nature, the spring strain was relatively non-lethal, rarely killing infected individuals (Kolata, 1999). Thus little more than average attention was paid to the precursor of a virus that would eventually kill between twenty-one and one-hundred million individuals worldwide (Barry, 2004). Only after the fall wave of the 1918 influenza did it become a requirement to report cases of influenza thus information on this first wave is sporadic at best (Kolata, 1999). I will argue that the nature of this missing data combined

This sort of environment was the perfect place for the Spanish influenza to begin its deadly streak. On March 11, the first cases of the Spanish flu showed up. The doctors did not worry; they believed it was just the flu. However, case after case of influenza came in, and by the week’s end, 522 people were sick. In the end, 48 soldiers died of influenza, and all their deaths were listed as pneumonia because of their frightening symptoms: labored breathing, violent coughs and nosebleeds, high fever, fluid filling the lungs, etc. However, quite suddenly, the influenza disappeared from Fort Riley (Iezzoni 23-24) and followed the path forged by the soldiers rushing to World War 1. It eventually spread around the world (Billings 2).

It traveled across the United States in weeks, the globe in only a few months, and it could have a rapid course, progressing from early symptoms to death in a day. The epidemic had two other crucial characteristics. It did not respect the epidemiologic rules taught by influenza outbreaks ignoring risk factors such as age and localized outbreaks. Its symptoms were gruesome: Your face turns a dark brownish purple. You start to cough up blood. Your feet turn black. A blood-tinged saliva bubbles out of your mouth. You die--by drowning. It was a mystery with no known origin, no known etiology, and no treatment. From its extraordinary ability to reach into everyday life in every nation to the special trains to carry away the dead, the epidemic is a story of mythic proportions. Along with these colossal attributes, it is also given, in popular thought, the power of

In the book The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, John Barry depicts an epidemic disease greater than anything the world has ever known. The story takes place during World War I, after a deadly virus breaks out during the war. The disease gradually increases as people carried it from country to country, spreading it to those who were not immune to it. With its speed, it ending up killing over one hundred million people across the globe in the span of a year. It killed more people in twenty-four months than the Black Death killed in a century. In this chronical, Barry illustrates the story of medicial men and their search to try and fight this epic disease.

In the ten months between September 1918 and June 1919, 675,000 Americans died of influenza and pneumonia. When compared to the number of Americans killed in combat in World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam combined- 423,000- it becomes apparent that the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 was far more deadly than the war which it accompanied. (Crosby, 206-207) The United States and the rest of the world had been exposed to such epidemics in the past, but never at such a severe cost in human life.

Philadelphia was the busiest port and the largest city in America. In July 1793, there were thousands of Caribbean’s refugees who escaped from political turmoil to live in Philadelphia. In that summer, the weather was unusually dry and hot. The water levels of the streams and wells were reduced sharply, which lead to provide an appropriate habitat for insects. All of these changes caused a perfect atmosphere for the Yellow Fever epidemic to exist (EyeWitnesstoHistory, 2016). The symptoms which will appear during the first week of being a victim of this disease are: muscle aches, headache, red eyes, dizziness and nausea (WHO, 2016). This research will discuss the personal characteristics, the treatment and prevention of the Yellow Fever disaster

This smog affected many working class people causing many health issues. The environment from the start was slowly reduced to what it is. Health was destroyed in many lower class citizens leading to many deaths. Long term affects, were only just being realised. The world didn’t know what they had done till very recent.

By tracing the long-term pattern of London fog, a conclusion can be made, the Great Smog of London is not a spontaneous event, however, fog observation cannot be used as an estimate of air pollution. This article provides insightful and comprehensive information to the research topic, gives a better understanding of the meteorological, economic, and political situation at the time of the incident, helps to facilitate

Although cholera is now well-documented and curable, for those in the nineteenth century the disease was frightening and unexplainable; symptoms occurred rapidly and were followed by a torturous death. Although naval ships had undergone substantial reforms by the nineteenth century, unresolved issues of overcrowding, limited clean resources and

The Great Smog of '52 occurred in London from December 5th to December 9th in 1952. This was when a thick fog covered London with a mixture of black smoke emitted from homes and factories, leading to a deadly smog (1). A severe cold weather hit London in December 1952. The people in London burned more coal to heat their homes because this is what they usually did when the weather became cold. On December 5th, 1952, a layer of dense fog engulfed the city and stayed for about five days. Since the air pollutants from the burning of coal were prevented from escaping into the atmosphere by an inversion, this caused the fog to form. Most of the people living in London were not surprised by this fog since the city was known for its"pea-soup fogs.

Imagine going outside and not being able to see the sidewalk right in front of your house because the fog is so thick. Fog is a thick cloud of tiny water droplets near the earth's surface, smog is fog that is mixed with smoke. During this event, the Great Smog of London killed an estimated 8,000 - 12,000 people. Furthermore, the fog that came down of December 5, 1952 mixed with chemicals that were already in the air. As a result, the air became toxic. In this case, it became dangerous to breathe this smog in. Every time someone would take a breath, they would inhale specks of coal, smoke from factories, and toxic fumes. (Dunn 1). These chemicals would leak into their lungs. Due to the pollution, the fog that came down on December 5, 1952, mixed with chemicals in the air and lead to several thousand cases of pneumonia and bronchitis, killing close to 12,000 people.

Living in London in 1854 was quite possibly terribly horrific. There had been a massive increase in the population in recent years and as a result there was an increase in the amount of waste produced. This waste was, for a while, managed properly, but in the middle of the 19th century the Soho neighborhood became quarters for the cholera bacterium. The disease puzzled many but it was through the workings of John Snow and Henry Whitehead that resulted in a realization of the causes of the outbreak. Their methods of research were the start of greater concern over public health.