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Donora Smog disaster in 1948...
Donora Smog disaster in 1948...
Item # 596884
October 31, 1948
THE DETROIT NEWS, October 31, 1948
* Donora, Pennsylvania smog disaster
The front page has one column headings: "Death of 15 Laid to Smog" and "At Least 50 Ill in Pittsburgh Area". 1st report coverage on the Donora smog disaster near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Other news, sports and advertisements of the day throughout including front page reporting on Operation Hiram. Complete in 100+ pages, rag edition in good condition.
wikipedia notes: The Donora Smog of 1948 was a historic air inversion pall of smog that killed 20 and sickened 7,000 people in Donora, Pennsylvania, United States, a mill town on the Monongahela River, 24 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
The smog first rolled into Donora on October 27, 1948. By the following day it was causing coughing and other signs of respiratory distress for many residents of the community in the Monongahela River valley. Many of the illnesses and deaths were initially attributed to asthma. The smog continued until it rained on October 31, by which time 20 residents of Donora had died and approximately a third to one half of the town's population of 14,000 residents had been sickened. Sixty years later, the incident was described by The New York Times as "one of the worst air pollution disasters in the nation's history". Even ten years after the incident, mortality rates in Donora were significantly higher than those in other communities nearby.
Sulfur dioxide emissions from U.S. Steel's Donora Zinc Works and its American Steel & Wire plant were frequent occurrences in Donora. What made the 1948 event more severe was a temperature inversion, in which a mass of warm, stagnant air was trapped in the valley, the pollutants in the air mixing with fog to form a thick, yellowish, acrid smog that hung over Donora for five days. The sulfuric acid, nitrogen dioxide, fluorine and other poisonous gases that usually dispersed into the atmosphere were caught in the inversion and accumulated until the rain ended the weather pattern.[1]
One of the heroes to emerge during the four-day smog was Chief John Volk of the Donora Fire Department and his assistant Russell Davis. Volk and Davis responded to calls from Friday night until Sunday night, depleting their supply of 800 cubic feet of Oxygen, borrowing more from all nearby municipalities including, McKeesport, Monessen, and Charleroi. “I didn’t take any myself. What I did every time I came back to the station was have a little shot of whiskey. “
The eight doctors in the town, whom belonged to the Donora Medical Association, made house calls, much like the firefighters, during the period of intense smog. Often visiting the houses of patients whom were treated by the other doctors in town. This was a result of patients calling every doctor in town in the hope of getting treatment faster. It was not until mid-day Saturday, that Mrs. Vernon had it setup so that all calls going to the doctors’ offices, would be switched to the emergency center being established in the town hall. The smog was so intense driving was all but abandoned; those who chose to continue driving were risky. “I drove on the left side of the street with my head pit the window. Steering by scraping the curb.” recalls Davis.
It was not until Sunday morning the 31st of October, that a meeting occurred between the operators of the plants, and the town officials. Burgess Chambon requested the plants temporarily cease operations. The superintendent of the plants, L.J. Westhaver, said the plants already began to shut down operation at around 6am that morning. With the rain alleviating the smog, the plants resumed normal operation the following morning.
Researchers analyzing the event have focused likely blame on pollutants from the zinc plant, whose emissions had killed almost all vegetation within a half-mile radius of the plant.[1] Dr. Devra L. Davis, director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, has pointed to autopsy results showing fluorine levels in victims in the lethal range, as much as 20 times higher than normal. Fluorine gas generated in the zinc smelting process became trapped by the stagnant air and was the primary cause of the deaths.
Category: The 20th Century
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