The Deadly Fog That Killed 12,000: What Really Happened?

Could a fog really kill 12,000 people? Welcome to the Great Smog of London in 1952. Join Hank for a new episode of SciShow where we unpack this deadly pollution event and discuss how smog can actually affect life expectancy.
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[Thesurge]

The Great Smog of London
The Great Fire of London
The Great Flood of London
The Great Stink of London
Isn't London just GREAT

[Master_Therion]

Where was Bilbo Baggins when Smaug killed 12, 000 people in London?

[tobitoes]

My grandad was born in it. On the way to the hospital the ambulance driver had to get out to ask for directions because he couldn't tell where they were. My great gran loved telling that story

[shmuelparzal]

Back in the 1950s in Lincoln (England), factories belched out black smoke that hung permanently over the city. Stone buildings like churches had a covering of 2-5 cms of hard, black gunk. It was only after the Clean Air Act that Lincoln's buildings could be cleaned, and now there's no comparison between how they looked back then and how they look now. I don't know how people could have lived with that for so long; I'm told the smoke and blackened buildings gave the city a dark, depressing feel.

[cup_check_official]

i thought it said the frog that killed 12000 people... i thought of kermit the frog... dont know why

[ismailabdelirada]

*"It turns out, turning the air into poison: not a good idea."*

Well, crumbs! There goes our entire economic model.

[NightcoreLabOfficial]

I'm pretty sure I read it Frog not Fog from the notification

[bkrharold]

I grew up in London and remember the smogs. The smog was so thick you could literally not see your hand if you held it in front of your face. One time when I was 13 they let us out of school early because the smog was so bad. The driver of the bus I took to get home got lost. The conductor was walking in front of the bus with a torch to to guide the driver, but he ended up taking us up a driveway into a church yard, where he told us we have to all get off. Luckily I found my way home somehow passing people who looked like ghosts, trying to cover my mouth and nose with my pullover to filter the dirty sooty air.

[GrumpSupport]

I love that pretty much universally the rest of the world would figure out, “huh this thing we’re doing is like really bad for us, let’s change it” after an amount of time, and then America sat there for an extra few decades with their arms crossed going “we’re not gonna listen to you, it isn’t that bad”.

[luxtenax]

The title is like something out of a campy horror movie from the 50's.

[d_wang]

*The suns a deadly laser*
Not now there's a blanket
Nooo, its made out of smog

[moritzl]

This is pretty much China and India today, to a lesser extent. So yeah, 40% of the world's population is still suffering from it.

[barbaracunningham]

I remember visiting London as a child and experiencing a smog. It smelt awful and at one stage my father could not read a street name so mum got out of the car and had to go right up to the post to be able to read the sign. The fog was really yellowish and horrible.

[kianabencharski]

Am I the only one who actually read the title right?

[michaelvernon]

At the end he said, "you're great" it really hit me. Ty hank

[jacobmortimore]

my grandad died in the the great smog of london :( never got to meet him

[utareangara]

If you watcht The Crown Season 2, It gets highlighted. its takes up the whole episode

[xiupsilon]

This shows how poor lawmakers are at taking action until its too late, when people are dying.

The problem with climate change is that it will worsen decades after they step in and the after-effects might endanger humanity as a whole.

The other thing that makes them step is our vote. The problem here is that not all countries are democracies.

[jacquelinepaddock]

I was a primary school pupil in London at the time. Mum stopped me going to school after she realised how bad it was getting. She used to stuff rags in any gaps that were letting in the awful stuff.

[Stroivan]

Well, as one famous barber once said: 'There's no place like London'...