Donora Smog of 1948
Encyclopedia
The 1948 Donora smog was a historic air inversion resulting in a wall of smog
that killed 20 people and sickened 7,000 more in Donora, Pennsylvania
, a mill town
on the Monongahela River
, 24 miles (38.6 km) southeast of Pittsburgh.
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.
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 (22.7 m³) 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, who 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 who 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 set up 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 that driving was nearly abandoned; those who chose to continue driving were risky. “I drove on the left side of the street with my head out 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. 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.
and released in December 1948 showed that thousands more Donora residents could have been killed if the smog had lasted any longer than it had, in addition to the 20 humans and nearly 800 animals killed during the incident.
Lawsuits were filed against U.S. Steel, which never acknowledged responsibility for the incident, calling it "an act of God". While the steel company did not accept blame, it reached a settlement in 1951 in which it paid about $235,000, which was stretched over the 80 victims who had participated in the lawsuit, leaving them little after legal expenses were factored in. Representatives of American Steel and Wire settled the more than $4.6 million claimed in 130 damage suits at about 5% of what had been sought, noting that the company was prepared to show at trial that the smog had been caused by a "freak weather condition" that trapped over Donora "all of the smog coming from the homes, railroads, the steamboats, and the exhaust from automobiles, as well as the effluents from its plants." U.S. Steel closed both plants by 1966.
By 1949, a year after the disaster, the total value of the predominantly residential property in Donora had declined by nearly 10%.
The Donora Smog marked one of the incidents where Americans recognized that exposure to large amounts of pollution in a short period of time can result in injuries and fatalities. The event is often credited for helping to trigger the clean-air movement in the United States, whose crowning achievement was the Clean Air Act of 1970, which required the United States Environmental Protection Agency
to develop and enforce regulations to protect the general public from exposure to hazardous airborne contaminants.
The incident was little spoken of in Donora until a historical marker was placed in the town in 1998 to mark the 50th anniversary of the incident. The 60th anniversary, in 2008, was commemorated with memorials for the families of the victims and other educational programs. The Donora Smog Museum
was opened on October 20, 2008, located in an old storefront at 595 McKean Avenue near Sixth Street, with the slogan "Clean Air Started Here". Fewer than 6,000 people still live in Donora.
in The New Yorker
under the title "The Fog". Together with another short story, "A Pig From New Jersey", this story won him the 1950 Albert Lasker Medical Journalism Award
. "The Fog" was later included in his celebrated collection of short stories Eleven Blue Men
.
Devra Davis
' 2002 novel When Smoke Ran Like Water starts with the Donora Smog.
The 2009 novel Don't Kill the Messenger by Joel Pierson features a fictional town, Wyandotte, Pennsylvania, which became a ghost town after a smog incident, based on the Donora Smog.
An hour-long documentary "Rumor of Blue Sky" produced by Andrew Maietta and Janet Whitney aired on WQED-TV in April 2009. The film features archival images and interviews with survivors of the environmental tragedy.
Smog
Smog is a type of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Modern smog is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine...
that killed 20 people and sickened 7,000 more in Donora, Pennsylvania
Donora, Pennsylvania
Donora is a borough in Washington County, Pennsylvania, south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela river. Donora was incorporated in 1901. Donora got its name from a combination of William Donner and Nora Mellon, banker Andrew W. Mellon's wife. Agriculture, coal-mining, steel-making, wire-making, and...
, a mill town
Mill town
A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories .- United Kingdom:...
on the Monongahela River
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River is a river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania in the United States...
, 24 miles (38.6 km) southeast of Pittsburgh.
The incident
The smog first rolled into Donora on October 27, 1948. By the following day it was causing coughing and other signs of respiratory distressRespiratory distress
Respiratory distress may refer to either/both:* Labored breathing, the physical presentation of respiratory distress*Shortness of breath or dyspnea - a sensation of respiratory distress-See also:*List of terms of lung size and activity...
for many residents of the community in the Monongahela River valley. Many of the illnesses and deaths were initially attributed to asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
. 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
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
as "one of the worst air pollution
Air pollution
Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment, into the atmosphere....
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
Sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula . It is released by volcanoes and in various industrial processes. Since coal and petroleum often contain sulfur compounds, their combustion generates sulfur dioxide unless the sulfur compounds are removed before burning the fuel...
emissions from U.S. Steel
U.S. Steel
The United States Steel Corporation , more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an integrated steel producer with major production operations in the United States, Canada, and Central Europe. The company is the world's tenth largest steel producer ranked by sales...
'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
Sulfuric acid
Sulfuric acid is a strong mineral acid with the molecular formula . Its historical name is oil of vitriol. Pure sulfuric acid is a highly corrosive, colorless, viscous liquid. The salts of sulfuric acid are called sulfates...
, nitrogen dioxide
Nitrogen dioxide
Nitrogen dioxide is the chemical compound with the formula it is one of several nitrogen oxides. is an intermediate in the industrial synthesis of nitric acid, millions of tons of which are produced each year. This reddish-brown toxic gas has a characteristic sharp, biting odor and is a prominent...
, fluorine
Fluorine
Fluorine is the chemical element with atomic number 9, represented by the symbol F. It is the lightest element of the halogen column of the periodic table and has a single stable isotope, fluorine-19. At standard pressure and temperature, fluorine is a pale yellow gas composed of diatomic...
and other poisonous gases that usually dispersed into the atmosphere were caught in the inversion and accumulated until the rain ended the weather pattern.
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 (22.7 m³) 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, who 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 who 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 set up 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 that driving was nearly abandoned; those who chose to continue driving were risky. “I drove on the left side of the street with my head out 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. Dr. Devra L. Davis
Devra Davis
Devra Lee Davis is an American epidemiologist and writer. She was born on June 7th, 1946, in Washington, DC, the daughter of Harry B. and Jean Langer Davis, and was raised in Donora and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania....
, director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute
University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute
The University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute is a National Cancer Institute -designated Comprehensive Cancer Center located in the Hillman Cancer Center in the Shadyside neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States...
, has pointed to autopsy results showing fluorine levels in victims in the lethal range, as much as 20 times higher than normal. Fluorine
Fluorine
Fluorine is the chemical element with atomic number 9, represented by the symbol F. It is the lightest element of the halogen column of the periodic table and has a single stable isotope, fluorine-19. At standard pressure and temperature, fluorine is a pale yellow gas composed of diatomic...
gas generated in the zinc smelting
Zinc smelting
Zinc smelting is the process of converting zinc concentrates into pure zinc.The most common zinc concentrate processed is zinc sulfide, which is obtained by concentrating sphalerite using the froth flotation method. Secondary zinc material, such as zinc oxide, is also processed with the zinc...
process became trapped by the stagnant air and was the primary cause of the deaths.
Aftermath
Preliminary results of a study performed by Dr. Clarence A. Mills of the University of CincinnatiUniversity of Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio....
and released in December 1948 showed that thousands more Donora residents could have been killed if the smog had lasted any longer than it had, in addition to the 20 humans and nearly 800 animals killed during the incident.
Lawsuits were filed against U.S. Steel, which never acknowledged responsibility for the incident, calling it "an act of God". While the steel company did not accept blame, it reached a settlement in 1951 in which it paid about $235,000, which was stretched over the 80 victims who had participated in the lawsuit, leaving them little after legal expenses were factored in. Representatives of American Steel and Wire settled the more than $4.6 million claimed in 130 damage suits at about 5% of what had been sought, noting that the company was prepared to show at trial that the smog had been caused by a "freak weather condition" that trapped over Donora "all of the smog coming from the homes, railroads, the steamboats, and the exhaust from automobiles, as well as the effluents from its plants." U.S. Steel closed both plants by 1966.
By 1949, a year after the disaster, the total value of the predominantly residential property in Donora had declined by nearly 10%.
The Donora Smog marked one of the incidents where Americans recognized that exposure to large amounts of pollution in a short period of time can result in injuries and fatalities. The event is often credited for helping to trigger the clean-air movement in the United States, whose crowning achievement was the Clean Air Act of 1970, which required the United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
to develop and enforce regulations to protect the general public from exposure to hazardous airborne contaminants.
The incident was little spoken of in Donora until a historical marker was placed in the town in 1998 to mark the 50th anniversary of the incident. The 60th anniversary, in 2008, was commemorated with memorials for the families of the victims and other educational programs. The Donora Smog Museum
Donora Smog Museum
Donora Smog Museum features a collection of archival materials documenting the Donora Smog of 1948, an air inversion of smog containing fluorine that killed 20 people in Donora, Pennsylvania, United States, a mill town 20 miles south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela River.Donora was home to U.S....
was opened on October 20, 2008, located in an old storefront at 595 McKean Avenue near Sixth Street, with the slogan "Clean Air Started Here". Fewer than 6,000 people still live in Donora.
In the media
An account of the smog was published in 1950 by the noted medical writer Berton RouechéBerton Roueché
Berton Roueché was a medical writer who wrote for The New Yorker magazine for almost fifty years. He also wrote twenty books including Eleven Blue Men , The Incurable Wound , Feral , and The Medical Detectives...
in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
under the title "The Fog". Together with another short story, "A Pig From New Jersey", this story won him the 1950 Albert Lasker Medical Journalism Award
Lasker Award
The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1946 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, founded by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker and his wife Mary...
. "The Fog" was later included in his celebrated collection of short stories Eleven Blue Men
Eleven Blue Men
Eleven Blue Men, and Other Narratives of Medical Detection is an award winning collection of twelve true short stories written by Berton Roueché and published in 1953...
.
Devra Davis
Devra Davis
Devra Lee Davis is an American epidemiologist and writer. She was born on June 7th, 1946, in Washington, DC, the daughter of Harry B. and Jean Langer Davis, and was raised in Donora and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania....
' 2002 novel When Smoke Ran Like Water starts with the Donora Smog.
The 2009 novel Don't Kill the Messenger by Joel Pierson features a fictional town, Wyandotte, Pennsylvania, which became a ghost town after a smog incident, based on the Donora Smog.
An hour-long documentary "Rumor of Blue Sky" produced by Andrew Maietta and Janet Whitney aired on WQED-TV in April 2009. The film features archival images and interviews with survivors of the environmental tragedy.
Sources
- Overview of the 1948 Donora Smog, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental ProtectionPennsylvania Department of Environmental ProtectionThe Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection was established on July 1, 1995, is the agency in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania responsible for protecting and preserving the land, air, water, and energy resources through enforcement of the State's environmental laws...
- Don Hopey (2008). Museum remembers Donora's deadly 1948 smog: story by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved October 21, 2008.
- Weather Channel (2008). When Weather Changed History: Killer Smog. Retrieved November 6, 2008.