Killer smog claims elderly victims

Killer smog hovered over Donora, Pennsylvania, on October 29, 1948. Over a five-day period, the smog killed about 20 people and made thousands more seriously ill. Donora was a town of 14,000 people on the Monongahela River in a valley surrounded by hills. The town was …read more

In the aftermath, air pollution finally became a matter of public concern; the incident led to the passage of 1955 Clean Air Act. The Donora Zinc Works shuttered operations in 1957.