Communicating Through Challenging Times.
This article is part of Finding the Words, a newsletter that delivers practical insights on the day’s issues.
It was late October in 1948 when a mysterious fog descended upon the valley town of Donora, Pennsylvania. Residents of the small mining town had grown used to murky air over the years, but on this day in Donora, the morning fog just didn’t lift.
At first, no action was taken. The residents of Donora relied on the mines for their livelihoods and had become accustomed to heavy pollution. Smoky air was considered a sign of prosperity, whereas clear skies meant economic depression and unemployment.
Yet, something more troubling than an economic depression was brewing. Residents reported trouble breathing. Driving became impossible. The 7 doctors in town were overrun with patients. All this while the Donora Halloween parade and high school football game went on as usual.
The 1948 Donora smog is now considered the worst air pollution disaster in U.S. history. The smog lasted for 5 days and left 20 people dead. But as that historic moment played out, most residents didn’t do anything about it...
Except for Dr. William Rongaus, a physician who went door to door treating patients for their respiratory symptoms and encouraging them to leave town. He was also the first to blame the smog on poisonous gases emitted from the mines. His swift actions saved hundreds of lives and helped to draw attention to the need for industrial regulation. The Donora Death Fog, as it would later be called, caused the world to wake up to the harmful effects of air pollution and spurred the EPA’s first Clean Air Act.
In a town economically sustained by the mills, speaking out against local industry could have been catastrophic. And in the end, it was. But the purpose-driven Ronghaus saw only one viable option: people over profit. Life over livelihoods.
While decades in the past, the Donora Fog story offers a warning and a reminder for leaders today: When a crisis is brewing, you can choose to raise the alarm or ignore the fog. What will you do?
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Today, nearly 76 years after Donora, I think back to Dr. Rongaus' life-saving impact and the power in each of us to "say something when we see something."
Bottom line: Every day brings with it a new opportunity to take action: to say something if we see something and to act in service of people and the planet. Because if you don’t act when you see the fog rising, what can you expect other than disaster?
This post is part of the Finding The Words column, a series published every Wednesday that delivers a dose of communication insights direct to your inbox. If you like what you read, we hope you’ll subscribe to ensure you receive this each week.
