Killer smog

BBC Inside Science

BBC

Technology, Science

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For a week at the beginning of December 1952, London was under a blanket of deadly smog. As a result, the Clean Air Act came into force a few years later banning smoky sulphurous fuels. However air pollution researchers are now concerned that rising emissions from wood burners may be undoing many of the gains from the Clean Air Act. We hear from Dr Gary Fuller, air pollution scientist at Imperial College London and author of The Invisible Killer, the Rising Global Threat of Air Pollution and How We can Fight Back. We also discuss emissions we can’t see, bacteria and even microplastics which are now present in the air. Catherine Rolph from the Open University tells us where we might find them. And we reveal the winner of the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize. You can find interviews with all the shortlisted authors in our previous programmes. BBC Inside Science is produced in partnership with the Open University.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself.
0:03.7	My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a load of sport podcasts.
0:08.4	I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with a leading journalist, experienced
0:12.2	pundits and the biggest sport stars.
0:14.3	Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights straight from the players'
0:18.5	mouths.
0:19.5	But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is our unique access to the sport world.
0:25.0	What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection to
0:28.8	dedicated sports fans across the UK.
0:31.4	So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more.
0:36.5	You've downloaded BBC Inside Science first broadcast on the 1st of December 2022.
0:44.3	Hello, science to celebrate in this episode as we bring you the winner of the Royal Society's
0:50.0	Book of the Year.
0:52.0	More to toast from medical science as a breakthrough is announced this week in the treatment of Alzheimer's.
0:57.5	We'll be asking how much lacanemab will help and if it unravels the mystery of how this
1:02.6	devastating disease develops.
1:05.2	But let's kick off with another anniversary, one with positive consequences but really
1:10.0	to be commemorated as one of the worst air pollution events in British history.
1:15.6	In the early days of December, 70 years ago in London, fog and air pollution combined
1:20.8	to make a horrific smog that killed thousands.
1:24.5	Here's some reporting from the BBC's archive.
1:29.8	It started on the 5th of December and it went on getting worse until the 9th.
	...

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