The Donora Smog Museum features a collection of archival materials documenting the
Donora Smog of 1948
The 1948 Donora smog killed 20 people and caused respiratory problems for 6,000 of the 14,000 people living in Donora, Pennsylvania, a mill town on the Monongahela River southeast of Pittsburgh. The event is commemorated by the Donora Smog Muse ...
, an
air inversion
In meteorology, an inversion is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. It almost always refers to an inversion of the air temperature lapse rate, in which case it is called a temperature inversion. N ...
of
smog
Smog, or smoke fog, is a type of intense air pollution. The word "smog" was coined in the early 20th century, and is a portmanteau of the words ''smoke'' and '' fog'' to refer to smoky fog due to its opacity, and odor. The word was then inte ...
containing
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 reacti ...
that killed 20 people in
Donora,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, a mill town 20 miles south of
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
on the
Monongahela River
The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in North Cen ...
.
Donora was home to
U.S. Steel
United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with production operations primarily in the United States of America and in severa ...
's Donora Zinc Works and its
American Steel & Wire plant. The event is sometimes credited for initiating the clean-air movement in the United States, whose crowning achievement was the
Clean Air Act.
The museum, which opened October 20, 2008, is located at 595 McKean Avenue near Sixth Street in an old storefront.
The museum has partnered with
California University of Pennsylvania to develop
digital collectionof primary sources that are archived on site.
See also
*
Great Smog of 1952
The Great Smog of London, or Great Smog of 1952, was a severe air pollution event that affected London, England, in December 1952. A period of unusually cold weather, combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions, collected airborne poll ...
References
* Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Environmental Protection
Overview of the 1948 Donora Smog* Don Hopey (2008)
Museum remembers Donora's deadly 1948 smog: story by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Retrieved October 21, 2008.
External links
Official WebsiteDonora Smog Commemorative Committee
Environmental disasters in the United States
History museums in Pennsylvania
Industry museums in Pennsylvania
Museums in Washington County, Pennsylvania
Natural disaster museums
Smog
Museums established in 2008
2008 establishments in Pennsylvania