Clearing the Air: The War on Smog
PBS: UK PREMIERE Friday 20 February at 8.40pm

In 1943, dark, smoky clouds covered Los Angeles, causing residents to complain of burning eyes, nausea, and difficulty breathing. The source of the smog – a toxic mixture of smoke and fog – was a mystery, but one that had to be solved.

Instead of, as many at the time feared, being the result of Japanese sabotage, the harmful wartime smog problem was self-inflicted. A key figure was St. Louis’s mayor Raymond Tucker, whose advice helped L.A. establish the country’s first Air Pollution Control District.

This documentary recounts the epic struggle for cleaner air in American cities, involving years of scientific research and civic pressure that led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air Act.