So now you know:
"Pa. town remembers killer smog; Museum touts role in clean-air effort" by Sean D. Hamill, New York Times News Service | November 2, 2008
DONORA, Pa. - Smog was not unusual in Donora, a town of 14,000 then that was home to the American Steel & Wire Co. and the Donora Zinc Works plants - both run by the US Steel Co. - that sat along the river and employed 5,000 people.
But this was different. The thick, yellowish, acrid smog was the result of an unusual weather inversion - a pocket of warm, stagnant air - that sat over the valley for five days. Underneath what was essentially a lid on the valley were sulfuric acid, nitrogen dioxide, and other poisonous gases, including fluorine, that would normally rise into the atmosphere.
Most researchers blame the zinc plant, which had long been a source of complaints and was responsible for the denuding of almost all vegetation within a half-mile of the plant. The actual toll from the smog has never been accurately calculated. Dr. Devra Davis, director of the Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh and author of "When Smoke Ran Like Water," said Donora's mortality rate remained high for years afterward.
"There are still lessons to be learned," Davis said. "There are situations like Donora going on in India and Asia right now." The plants both closed by 1966, and Donora is now a struggling town of 5,653. After the deadly smog, US Steel said it was "an act of God" and never admitted any responsibility, even after it settled lawsuits filed against it for $250,000.
By the time legal fees were taken out and the money was spread among the hundreds of victims - both those who died and those who got ill - most individuals received a pittance. "My aunt said she had enough left to buy a TV," Joann Crow, now 72, said. --more--"
Don't spend it on that -- unless you want to waste your $$$.
