This Day in History: 1948-10-30

Donora smog disaster kills at least 20 and leaves 6,000 ill on this Halloween weekend in 1948. While many other towns near Pittsburgh, PA generated smoke and smog, the combination of a weather inversion and heavy production at the zinc wire plant contributed to very serious conditions in Donora. At the height of the smog incident, doctors and nurses were going door to door and finding people on their floors, gasping for breath. The local board of health orders the zinc works closed, but they take two days to do so. Dr. William Rongaus told the New York Times: “It’s murder. There’s nothing else you can call it.” The Donora disaster was studied by a British commission but utterly ignored, leading to the tragedy of the December 1952 Great Smog of London in which 4,000 people died.