Flashback: The City's Killer Smog

As you may have read in our newsletter, on this day in 1966 New York City experienced the smoggiest day in the city's history... and the details read like a horror movie. After 9/11, the NY Times touched upon three particularly smoggy years in the city, saying "Most of the horrors of New York's environmental past, like the grim air episodes in 1953, 1962 and 1966, were chronic and cumulative. Most past events had a thousand sources and causes — a vague diffusion of responsibility that made no one responsible."

According to this briefing, key motivations for congressional action included a 'Killer Smog' in London in 1962 and similar inversions in New York. In November 1953, smog killed between 170 and 260 people in NYC; 10 years later it killed 200; and in 1966 it killed 169. The 1953 smog is often mentioned in relation to Dylan Thomas's death. He died in November of 1953, and a turning point in his health "came on November 2nd, when air pollution rose to levels that were a threat to those with chest problems."

Back in 2006, the EPA declared "that 68 out of every million New Yorkers is at risk for getting cancer just from breathing the air." It looks like next year we can expect a progress report regarding air pollution in the city. In the meantime, we wonder if an upcoming season of Mad Men might revolve around the 1966 smog.

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By Jen Carlson in News on November 24, 2009 3:33 PM

Comments [rss]

Johnnie Torres

Funny that they actually did refer to this in last week's episode of Mad Men. I live in Los Angeles and have experienced all levels of smog. Why was the smog so "killer" on these particular days?

Joseph Windowstosky

Nice call :)

LaLuneEstMorte

I like that the caption in the last photo is a little misleading. The ship is coasting towards what bridge? The Manhattan or the Brooklyn? It certainly can't be the Brooklyn, unless tugs moved stern-first back in the day...

casey shain

i remember those days of the mid 1960s. my dad worked in Manhattan, commuting from Connecticut, and many times i would go to 'work' with him during the summers. it was absolutely unbelievably bad-just walking down the street could cause a coughing fit. later in the late '70s, i went to school at Vassar, near the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, and in my freshman year, the RIVER caught on fire. those were terribly dark days in more ways than one. and who sought to clean it all up? not the friggin conservatives, it was the LIBERALS. the LIBERALS are the only ones that make major changes for the good in this country, a thought to ponder in these days when the most anyone will ever own up to is the term PROGRESSIVE. progressive my ass, LIBERALS are always left to clean up the shit left by conservatives.

Think2wice

Yes siree, those were the Golden Days, when there was a chicken in every pot, women and Negroes knew their place, and Pinkos kept their mouth shut. When did it all go wrong...damn hippies.

birdmechanical

But how dare you put limits on companies! Let the market sort it out! It loses jobs! Taxes companies! I want to inhale smog and swim in acid rain!

jk