Was The Pollution Real Bad When Pittsburgh Was a Manufacturing Hub? (Donora: home, live)

[knowledgeiskey]

How was the air quality in those days? Was it really foggy on most days due to steel production?

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by knowledgeiskey

How was the air quality in those days? Was it really foggy on most days due to steel production?

Depends on the part of town you were in, and if you were down wind and in a low altitude in relationship to a major mill, at least in the 1960's and 1970's.

There were good reasons why people chose to build on the impossibly steep lots on Polish Hill and the South Side slopes to avoid the worst of the pollution.

Of course, in the 50's, eliminating coal burning for residential heat really did a lot to eliminate heavy soot and smoke which made the whole pollution situation worse before I was around.

[nuwaver88]

Here is a picture taken in Donora at noon sixty-three years ago.

The Pennsylvania Center for the Book - Donora Smog

[bradjl2009]

Yes it was very bad, especially in the city but it still was a little outside of the city too.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by nuwaver88

Here is a picture taken in Donora at noon sixty-three years ago.

The Pennsylvania Center for the Book - Donora Smog

As bad as the Donora Smog of 1948 was, they still played the Donora-Monongahela football game during the event.

[Katarina Witt]

It was bad in the mill towns, too.

[gg]

If it don't kill ya, it makes your stronger.

[Tallysmom]

Well -- let's put it this way. In the 50's, my mother would go shopping downtown in the morning, eat lunch, shop a little more and go home in time to prepare dinner. She carried one set of gloves and wore a set of gloves. She'd change to the new gloves after lunch.

By the time she got home at around 4 -- both sets of ivory cotton gloves were FILTHY from soot. It took major soaking and washing to get them clean again.

So, yeah -- it was pretty bad.

[MathmanMathman]

I think during WWII the pollution controls were lifted with the result that the streetlights were literally on even during the day. James Parton in 1868 described Pittsburgh infamously as "hell with the lid taken off".

Reactions mixed on comparison of city to hell - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

It also earned the nickname "Smoky City". I recall a joke on the original Jetson's cartoon that alluded to Pittsburgh's polluted smoky air (I think it has been since edited out). Richard King Mellon spearheaded Pittsburgh's cleanup and Renaissance but he needed David L Lawrence's as a political ally. Pittsburgh cleaned itself considerably even with the steel mills but I do recall a sort of sulfur smell in the air even out to Monroeville as a kid.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

the streetlights were literally on even during the day.

Wow, that's thought provoking. We really have come a long way in many cities.