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The Donora Death Smog (Patreon)

Published:

2023-08-29 10:15:00

Imported:

2023-12

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Content

Locals were complaining about the pollution from the mills for many years before and after the deadly smog. Here’s an extract from one letter penned by a woman named Lois Bainbridge (a resident of the nearby town of Webster) on the last day of the Donora smog.

"I would not want men to lose their jobs, but your life is more precious than your job. They closed the smelting plant today. Was found that you could breathe normally without having the air polluted with acid fumes. Webster was here before the Donora Zinc Works was constructed, so why should we suffer? A beautiful town is now almost a ghost town..."

This letter in particular is interesting, as it really captures the essence of the problem in a single sentence: "I would not want men to lose their jobs..."

The need for jobs was the exact reason why action wasn't taken sooner. Even though she was writing when the disaster was still ongoing, Mrs Bainbridge really hit the nail on the head with her letter!

Files

The Donora Death Smog | A Short Documentary | Fascinating Horror

"On the 27th of October, 1948, a thick smog descended on the town of Donora in Pennsylvania, plunging the community into a state of semi-darkness..." As always, THANK YOU to all my Patreon patrons: you make this channel possible. https://www.patreon.com/fascinatinghorror SOCIAL MEDIA: ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/TrueHorrorTales ► TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fascinatinghorror ► Suggestions: hello@fascinatinghorror.co.uk CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:46 - Background 02:42 - The Donora Death Smog 07:33 - Aftermath MUSIC: ► "Glass Pond" by Public Memory SOURCES: ► "The Deadly Donora Smog of 1948 Spurred Environmental Protection—But Have We Forgotten the Lesson?" by Lorraine Boissoneault, published by Smithsonian Magazine, October 2018. Link: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/deadly-donora-smog-1948-spurred-environmental-protection-have-we-forgotten-lesson-180970533/ ► Donora Historical Society and Smog Museum Website, published by the Donora Historical Society. Link: https://sites.google.com/site/donorahistoricalsociety/ ► "The Donora Smog Revisited: 70 Years After the Event That Inspired the Clean Air Act" by Elizabeth T Jacobs, Jefferey L Burgess and Mark B Abbott, published by the American Journal of Public Health, April 2018. Available via: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5922205/ ► "Decades ago, this pollution disaster exposed the perils of dirty air" by Cynthia Gorney, published by National Geographic, October 2020. Link: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/decades-ago-donora-smog-disaster-exposed-perils-dirty-air #Documentary #History #TrueStories