Donora, a small town south of Pittsburgh was a microcosm of American society. Donora had become home to a blend of cultures all coming together to work on the nation’s rapid growing economy post World War II. For a small community, it was well represented in both the Baseball and Football Halls of Fame with Stan Musial (baseball), Ken Griffey, Jr. (baseball), and Arnold Galiffa (football). But Donora is unfortunately noted for something else.
It was 1948. The local economy was booming based on the metals industry. U.S. Steel’s zinc production facility and American Steel and Wire’s facility were at the heart of the local economy. The hydrogen fluoride and sulfur dioxide emissions were tolerated because of the jobs the facilities provided.
It was a temperature inversion that kept the emissions confined to the surface and a toxic fog enveloped Donora for five days. The fog was so dense that people could barely see someone standing beside them.
People started dying. At first, the deaths were attributed to asthma. By the end of five days, 20 people had died. Another 50 people died within one month, including Stan Musial’s father. As time went on, 6,000 of Donora’s 14,000 residents had respiratory problems. The Donora fog was one of the most severe disasters in American history attributed to air quality.
Throughout the five-day fog, the owners of the factories rejected efforts to cease operations. It was rain that eventually ended the fog. Later toxicology studies confirmed that the factory emissions were responsible for the deaths.
U.S. Steel settled a lawsuit for $235,000 which provided a little less than $3,000 per plaintiff (about $38,000 today). Plaintiffs against American Steel and Wire did better, resulting in payoffs which would be approximately $4.6 million per plaintiff today. Neither company accepted responsibility.
The Donora fog is given credit for creating the clean air movement in the U.S. In 1963, fifteen years after the disaster, the first Clean Air Act was passed.
The Donora fog was also the beginning of something else: the denial of scientific research. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Cincinnati conducted studies of the impact of the fog on Donora residents. This research included autopsies of the victims of the fog which showed fluorine levels 20x the normal level. Those doing the research were pressured to withdraw their findings. U.S. Steel blamed God for the fog.
Just imagine how much we now hold in contempt those who were in denial about the impact of the Donora fog. Now just imagine how we will view those who are in current denial about the findings of climate science years from now.
Science will eventually win out over those whose only evidence is based upon their own stupidity.
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“We still think of air as free. But clean air is not free, and neither is clean water. The price tag on pollution control is high. Through our years of past carelessness, we incurred a debt to nature, and now that debt is being called.” – Richard M. Nixon