Clearing The Air: The War On Smog -
american experience

In the summer of 1943, a thick noxious haze of smog enveloped the Los Angeles region. Residents complained of burning eyes and lungs, and some experienced nausea. The physical distress caused by the haze was so bad that many feared it was a Japanese chemical warfare attack. Over the next several years, the problem reached crisis proportions. Farmers began complaining of discolored lettuce, wilted crops, and dying produce. Many suspected emissions from sulfur-emitting factories had caused the foul air, but a chemist at the California Institute of Technology had a different theory. Arie Haagen-Smit determined that the smog was the result of sunlight breaking down incompletely burned gasoline and other hydrocarbons found in car emissions. Meanwhile, across the country, toxicologist Mary Amdur made a disturbing discovery: the combined effects of air pollutants, even when not lethal, she determined, could cause permanent damage to lungs. Both Haagen-Smit and Amdur would suffer reprisals from entrenched industries threatened by their discoveries, but as the 1950s progressed, ordinary citizens became active in the fight to address air pollution across the country until, in 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Clean Air Act, one of the nation's first environmental laws. War on Smog will tell the story of the epic struggle against airborne toxins that lead to a national reckoning about air quality and the creation of the Clean Air Act.

Duration: 55 minutes and 40 seconds

Episode Number: 3704

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As television's longest-running, most-watched history series, American Experience brings to life the incredible characters and epic stories that helped form this nation.

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