The 1930 Meuse Valley fog between December 1st and December 5th, killed 63 people in Belgium owing to a combination of industrial

air pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different type ...

and a localized weather inversion. The River

Meuse The Meuse ( , , , ; wa, Moûze ) or Maas ( , ; li, Maos or ) is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea from the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. It has a ...

flows from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

through

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

before entering the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

. The area in the Meuse Valley where the incident occurred, between the cities of

Huy Huy ( or ; nl, Hoei, ; wa, Hu) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. Huy lies along the river Meuse, at the mouth of the small river Hoyoux. It is in the ''sillon industriel'', the former industrial ...

and Liege and centered around the town of

Engis Engis (; wa, Indji) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On 1 January 2006 Engis had a total population of 5,686. The total area is 27.74 km² which gives a population density of 205 inhabitants per km� ...

, was densely populated and had 27 factories. These factories produced zinc, steel, fertilizer, and explosives, amongst many other products. This was added to by large numbers of coal and wood heaters burning due to unseasonably cold weather. There were several thousand cases of illness over the week and the sixty three deaths occurred at the same time, with the first death occurring on December 3rd. Fifty-six of the deaths were to the east of

. The main symptom was

dyspnea Shortness of breath (SOB), also medically known as dyspnea (in AmE) or dyspnoea (in BrE), is an uncomfortable feeling of not being able to breathe well enough. The American Thoracic Society defines it as "a subjective experience of breathing di ...

(shortness of breath) and the average age of those who died was 62, over a range of ages of 20 to 89 years. The youngest, a 20 year old woman named Louise Dammes, died walking home from a party and may have had undiagnosed asthma that contributed to her death. Cattle in the area were also affected. Kaj Roholm, Danish scientist and the world's leading authority on fluorine, determined that it was the

fluorine Fluorine is a chemical element with the symbol F and atomic number 9. It is the lightest halogen and exists at standard conditions as a highly toxic, pale yellow diatomic gas. As the most electronegative reactive element, it is extremely reactiv ...

gas from the nearby factories that was the killer. The exact date of this disaster is unknown. A statue and plaque commemorating those who died were inaugurated in Engis on 2 December 2000. Due to a similar(albeit less severe) incident that occurred in a nearby valley in 1911 that killed off many cattle, many farmers in the Meuse Valley fled to the hillside during the first two days of the smog, reducing livestock casualties and likely saving the lives of several farmers as well.

References

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External links

The Meuse Valley fog of 1930: an air pollution disaster. The Lancet
Environment of Belgium Smog events 1930 in the environment 1930 in Belgium 1930 natural disasters Environmental disasters in Europe December 1930 events Fluorine

See also

References

External links