When the Great Smog of 1952 enveloped London in a dense layer of sulfur dioxide and coal smoke, the city ground to a halt. While human casualties eventually numbered in the thousands, one of the earliest and most dramatic panics occurred at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre during the annual Smithfield Cattle Show. Hundreds of champion livestock had been brought to the capital for exhibition, placing them directly in the path of the toxic airborne pollution.
As cold, stagnant air trapped high concentrations of sulfuric acid mist indoors, the prized cattle began showing severe signs of respiratory distress. Animals collapsed in their stalls, blue-tongued and gasping for air as their lungs burned from the chemical smog. Desperate herdsmen and veterinarians rushed to save the valuable livestock using makeshift remedies.
Farmers saturated whiskey-soaked rags and tied them around the animals' snouts to act as primitive air filters, while others rigged crude oxygen masks using tubing and cylinders borrowed from nearby medical suppliers. Despite these frantic interventions, twelve prize steers suffocated to death on the exhibition floor, and over a dozen more had to be emergency slaughtered to end their suffering. Interestingly, sheep and pigs at the same venue suffered virtually no ill effects, a physiological mystery that puzzled researchers for years.
The tragedy at Smithfield served as a bizarre and grim warning bell for the London public, previewing the horrific health crisis that would claim thousands of human lives over the following week.