London, Friday December 5, 1952. It is cold and an anticyclone has settled over the British capital.
No wind.
The Great Smog, of which the use of coal is the main cause, sets in.
It will last five days before a healthy breeze frees London from its noxious fog.
The medical reports which fall in the weeks which follow are dramatic: 4,000 people died of direct consequences of the smog and nearly 100,000 people sick.
Great Smog is the worst air pollution episode in UK history.
It resulted in the signing in 1956 of one of the first European environmental laws, the Clean Air Act.
It imposed drastic reforms in the pioneer country of the industrial revolution to purify the air.
That was barely 65 years ago.
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Since then, the atmosphere of Western cities has only improved.
In France, the latest figures are even rather positive.
In the region most sensitive to pollution
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