Every Breath You Take
The Great Smog of 1952 led to thousands of deaths in London - and ultimately to the Clean Air Act. In the seventy years since it was passed, how much has air quality changed?
It was known as the Great Smog. In 1952, London was blanketed for five days in a thick toxic layer of soot and sulphur dioxide, leading to thousands of premature deaths. The outcome was the Clean Air Act of 1956. In this programme, Helen Czerski and Tom Heap ask what's changed in the seventy years which have passed since then. How clean is the air we now breathe?
Panel:
Dr Gary Fuller, Honorary Senior Lecturer, Imperial College in London
Dr Kathy Davies, Environment Historian, Northumbria University
Beth Gardiner, Journalist and author
Producer: Emma Campbell
Assistant Producers: Toby Field and Georgia Graham
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Explore what we can do to help our rare Earth with The Open University.
Watch, play, and discover a wide range of bonus content.
Explore what we can do to help our rare Earth with The Open University.
Watch, play, and discover a wide range of bonus content.
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Rare Earth
Tom Heap and Helen Czerski dig deeper into the biggest environmental issues on the planet.
