Pea soup fog

Did You Know?

• The term "London particular" became the name for a thick pea and ham soup, reversing the idiom from the fog.
• The Great Smog of 1952 resulted in 4,000 deaths reported over a couple of days and 8,000 subsequent related deaths.

Historical observations

Air pollution from coal smoke was noted as early as the 13th century, when sea-coal smoke was thought to affect health. From the mid-17th century, ill-health in British cities, especially London, was attributed to coal smoke from domestic and industrial chimneys mixing with Thames Valley mists and fogs. Luke Howard, a pioneer in urban climate studies, published The Climate of London in 1818–1820, using the term "city fog" and describing the heat island effect that concentrated smog over the city. In 1880, Francis Albert Rollo Russell published a leaflet blaming home hearth smoke, not factory smoke, for damaging buildings, depriving vegetation of sunlight, and increasing laundering costs. He charged sulphurous smoke with increasing bronchitis and other respiratory diseases, stating that more than 2,000 Londoners had "literally choked to death" from domestic coal smoke combined with prolonged fogs in late January and early February 1880. The difficulties of driving through the fog were described in Autocar magazine: a 45-mile car journey on the night of 12 December 1946 took over eight hours, with the passenger sometimes walking alongside to see the kerb and steer while the driver operated the pedals. The most lethal incidence occurred in 1952, leading to the Clean Air Act 1956 and Clean Air Act 1968, now consolidated into the Clean Air Act 1993, which largely removed sulphur dioxide and coal smoke, though less visible pollutants from vehicles have replaced them.

Origins of the term

The earliest extant use of "pea-soup" as a descriptor appears in an 1820 report by John Sartain, recounting a fog as thick and yellow as pea-soup from an eating house, compounded by effusions from gas pipes, tan yards, chimneys, dyers, blanket scourers, breweries, sugar bakers, and soap boilers. An 1871 New York Times article refers to London, where the population is periodically submerged in a fog of the consistency of pea soup, causing large numbers of deaths from respiratory problems.