Donora Smog of 1948
 Location of Donora in Pennsylvania
|
|
| Coordinates | 40°10′34″N 79°51′20″W / 40.17624°N 79.85547°W |
|---|---|
| PA marker dedicated | October 28, 1995 |
Coordinates: 40°10′30″N 79°51′40″W / 40.175°N 79.861°W
The 1948 Donora smog was a historic air inversion that resulted 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 (39 km) southeast of Pittsburgh. The event is commemorated by the Donora Smog Museum.
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 10 years after the incident, mortality rates in Donora were significantly higher than those in other communities nearby.
The fog started building up in 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 one third to one half of the town's population of 14,000 residents had been sickened. Another 50 residents died of respiratory causes within a month after the incident; notable among the fatalities was Lukasz Musial, the father of the future baseball Hall of Famer Stan Musial.
...
Wikipedia