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What Happened to Residents’ Health Long After the Donora Death Fog?
“Our scientists tell us that the Donora episode was a rare phenomenon. We hope and pray it will never recur. This study by the Public Health Service into the Donora episode, the most exhaustive ever made on a problem in air pollution, is a step toward positive assurance that such a thing will not happen…
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What Happens to Residents’ Health When a Coke Plant Closes?
Just south of Careopolis, Pennsylvania, the Ohio River splits at the northernmost tip of a long skinny island and joins together again about five miles later. The island, Neville Island, contained at its southernmost tip the Shenango Coke Works, a sprawling industrial complex built around 1930. Shenango processed coal for steel mills and had been…
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One Woman’s Story of the Deadly Smog
When you write a true story of an event, you always gather information you’d like to include in the final version but just can’t. Such was the case with one of my interview subjects for my book, Donora Death Fog: Clean Air and the Tragedy of a Pennsylvania Mill Town. I interviewed Donora native Edie…
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Meet the Toxicologist Who Nailed the Smelter Industry After the Donora Smog
The full story of the Donora smog disaster could not be told without two names popping into the forefront, those of Philip Drinker and Mary O. Amdur. Drinker had famously invented the “iron lung” for victims of polio, principally children. Polio, more accurately called poliomyelitis, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Victims who…
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What Donora’s Smog Plaque Gets Right … And Wrong
A prominent bronze plaque at the southern entrance to Donora honors smog victims…and then some.
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Was There a 21st Victim of the Donora Death Fog?
I thought I had determined the final count of victims from the Donora Death Fog. I was wrong.
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How Were Lawsuits Settled After the Donora Death Fog?
After Susan Gnora died in the smog, a settlement with US Steel allowed each of her eight children, all of whom were age 20 or older, to receive a bit over half the cost of a new TV.
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Full List of Donora Smog Victims
So, who *really* died in the Donora Death Fog?
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The Curious Case of Stanley Sawa
This post was updated Feb. 14, 2020, based on information obtained from Stanley Sawa’s son. One of the first stories I heard about the Donora smog of 1948 concerned the football game between the Donora Dragons and the Monongahela Wildcats on Saturday October 31. Donora lost the game 27–7, a disheartening loss to be sure.…
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Where Did the Smog Victims Live and Die?
Knowing where each victim lived — and died — can be instructive for several reasons. Consider how many of those victims and their families must have known each other.
