Anyone ever hear of this?

THE GREAT SMOG OF 1952 (aka "big smoke" and "killer fog") Early in December of '52 a cold fog settled over London like an icy comforter, blanketing everything. Not usual, right? No big deal-- just add another lump of coal to the fire. Well. The increased pollution was trapped by the fog in what's known as an "inversion," (which all Utahns are intimately familiar with). Inversions are caused when concentrated pollutants become a haze trapped by a dense mass of cold air. Trapped within the sooty brew were particulates and gasses from London's many factories, though the main pollutant was coal smoke. It was as if a black soot bubble had surrounded the city.

Smog was everywhere, even indoors; concerts, plays, and movies were canceled because the audience could not see the stage or screen. Archivists at the British Museum found smog lurking in the book stacks. Maureen Scholes, a nurse at the Royal London Hospital said the smog penetrated through clothes, blackening undergarments. Cattle in the city's Smithfield market were killed and thrown away before they could be slaughtered and sold — their lungs were black.

After two days of the smog, visibility fell to one foot. The sun was entirely unseen. Driving became impossible and abandoned cars littered the streets. Ambulances stopped running, and thousands of gasping residents walked through the smog to the city's hospitals. Children, the elderly, and smokers were affected most (as per usual). Deaths were attributed to hypoxia, pneumonia, and other infection. Doctors noted that a virulent pus filled lungs and airways and was particularly difficult to treat.

The extreme air pollution caused or advanced the death of several thousand Londoners. In the blitz, 30,000 Londoners died. According a recent study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, 12,000 may have been killed by the great smog. The terror of the fog's lethal nature led to parliamentary action. In 1956 the "Clean Air Act" was established, a forefront pollution restriction which led several other countries to take action, hoping to avoid a tragedy of their own.