Archive Article: Killed By A London Fog. 6 Dec 02.
December 27, 2008

50 years ago this week – on December 4 – a dense fog settled over London. It turned out to be one of the world’s worst examples of air pollution. But it is only now that we are learning the full details of it.

The current edition of the “New Scientist” magazine has a brilliant article by Fred Pearce on the 1952 killer fog. I have to declare an interest – I was four years old at the time and could easily have ended up as one of the statistics being misreported by the British Government.

When the Great London Smog eventually lifted, it left behind mortuaries full to overflowing, undertakers who did not have enough coffins, and florists who had run out of flowers. The event was so significant that an international conference is being held this month to examine the fog. The conference is being aided by access to government files – and some real surprises have been located.

The fog was caused by the Government’s decision to sell poor quality coal at home, so as to be able to sell the good quality coal overseas. The answer to the problem was to ban the burning of coal in towns – and this occurred a few years later. London is now a much healthier place to visit.

What is now attracting interest are the political implications of the Great London Smog. First, there were no immediate answers to the problem. But it was necessary to reassure – or fool – the general public into believing that the Government was doing something. In a statement that could easily have come from the “Yes Minister” television series, a British Government minister, Harold Macmillan, said: “We cannot do very much, but we can seem to be very busy – and that is half the battle nowadays”.

Second, the Government decided that two million cheap “smog masks” should be issued to people with heart and respiratory problems. The Government knew that the masks were useless but, again, it gave the impression that something was being done.

By the way, an American tobacco company offered to donate 100,000 masks that used a novel filter technology designed for cigarettes. The Government rejected the offer because it feared that the company would use the gift in its advertising campaign: “this cigarette filter is so good it could keep out London smog”.

Third, the real shocker has been the Government’s policy to underestimate the number of people killed. The official line was that the fog was simply killing off the frail elderly, who were going to die anyway; the Great London Smog simply speeded up the process.

We now know that some medical experts within the Ministry of Health were troubled about this claim. Too many people were dying to whom this explanation would not normally apply: middle aged people and babies.

The Ministry of Health then claimed that there was a ‘flu epidemic which had also contributed to the high number of deaths. This was another lie because there is no evidence that there was a ‘flu epidemic.

In short: the Government said that about 4,000 people were killed. This month’s conference will hear that the figure was about 12,000.

As is so often the case when a government chooses to lie, the truth comes out eventually. But we often have to wait.

Broadcast On Friday 6th December 2002 On Radio 2GB’s “Brian Wilshire Programme” At 9pm.

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