But , Davis says , the incident had some positive outcomes : it also sparked an interest in a new kind of public health research . “ Prior to Donora there wasn ’ t a general appreciation of the fact that chronic exposures over long periods of time affected health . Public health back then consisted of investigating epidemics , when cholera could kill you , or polio could kill you
.”
Residents of Donora took pride in alerting the nation to the dangers of air pollution , Davis says ( herself a native of Donora ), and continue to commemorate the incident at the Donora
Historical Society and Smog Museum . Following the deadly smog , President Truman convened the first national air pollution conference in 1950 . Congress didn ’ t pass its first Clean Air Act until 1963 , but progress continued steadily after that , with
President Nixon creating the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 , the same year that Congress passed a more comprehensive Clean Air Act
.
But the work of protecting the environment is never entirely finished, as new industries and technologies take the place of previous ones
.
The Donora wire mill ( which later became part of the American Steel & Wire Company ) on the banks of the Monongahela River in 1910 . Library of Congress