Murder, muggings & 12,000 deaths... the Great Smog of 1952

warned me about. As I turned round, he vanished in a swirl of fog.”

Cattle brought to Earl’s Court for the Smithfield Show began choking on the fumes and at least 11 animals died. The smog even seeped into buildings.

Nurses could not see from one end of the ward to the other, and cinema and theatre shows had to be cancelled.

The fog finally cleared when the winds picked up on December 9. In the weeks that followed, an official audit revealed at least 4,000 people had died as a direct result of the weather.

Coroners’ officials said they had a month’s work in four days, with many more death certificates handed out by family doctors. However, experts now believe that dramatically underestimates the smog death toll, which they believe was 12,000. Many were chillilian dren, the elderly, and those who suffered breathing or heart problems.

Some survivors still suffer the consequences. Robert P wrote on Clean Air London’s Facebook page: “I remember clearly our mum put a wet hanky over our nose and mouth before securing it in place with a scarf.

“By the time we got to school the hanky was badly stained with a dark brown substance.

“Today I suffer with the lung disease COPD, which I attribute mainly to those conditions.”

The Great Smog is still regarded as the worst disaster of its kind. Four years later the government introduced the Clean Air Act, limiting the use of coal fuels. The city still suffered from smog, with bad fogs in 1959 and 1962. The latter killed 750 people and led to tougher regulations via amendments to the Act in 1968.

But experts fear cities in India and China face a similar crisis, and warn it could take a disaster to force them to introduce the required limits.

University of Delhi’s environment expert C.R Babu said the city’s pollution problem could kill 30,000 people if India’s government does not act soon. He added: “In London, smog killed because people faced breathing

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problems. What we have today is a similar disaster, but the toxins in Delhi’s air could lead to chronic health disorders, not just short-term issues.”

London still has problems, too. Across the UK, we’re twice as likely to be killed by air pollution as in the US and 64 times more than in Sweden.

And a study by Imperial College and Kings College London, in the British Medical Journal this week, found pollution in London meant babies were likely to be born smaller and more likely to suffer health problems later.

Imperial’s Dr Rachel Smith called for stricter regulations, including on diesel cars. She said: “It’s 65 years since the Great Smog caused many deaths. Air pollution is again damaging the health of Londoners even before they’re born.”