This day, 50 years ago, dense fog brought road, rail and air transport to a complete halt.

 London was the worst affected. The Meteorological Office predicted that the latest smog would continue for 24 hours in the London area. This caused a ring around London of thick fog/smog causing huge chaos everywhere.

As visibility was down to 20 yards at London airport, many flights were diverted to Gatwick. Many trains were also cancelled.

But some businesses benifitted from this unpleasant weather: travel agents did a roaring trade and, also, Chemists, with a boom in the sale of smog masks!

The Clean Air Act was introduced in 1959. This prohibited the burning of domestic fuels in urban areas (smokeless zones) but fog continued to be smoky as the public took time to respond. The act was revised in 1968 when industries burning coal or gas were ordered to use taller chimneys but it wasn’t until 1974 that the first Control of Air Pollution introduced regulation on the composition of motor fuels.

In the 1980s and 1990s a new form of smog arrived caused by the chemical reaction of car pollutants and sunshine.

The 1985 Environment Act introduced new regulations for air pollutants.

This is the time of year when fresh, new and interesting ideas come forward which is why Phlorum is now revising and updating its website. It is certainly worth a look and also an opportunity for anyone to put their views on our voting section on the home page, your opinion is important!

Phlorum vote

The UK has seen the coldest start to a winter in three decades, and January shows no signs of letting up with some early-year temperatures reaching -12C, unheard of in the south! The cold snap will not cease Phlorum’s operations though, oh no; Japanese knotweed is a resistant species which can be found growing on the freezing mountains of China and India. Frost may mean its leaves fall to the floor and discolour, but its rhizome is choc full of sugar and starch and so doesn’t freeze. The weed will lie dormant for the rest of winter, but come early spring it will flourish again, meaning no end of phone calls from worried developers! We can’t get away from freezing site work that easily!

Aidan has now qualified for full membership of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management. The whole process took quite a long time in preparation requiring him to submit various information to the Institute along with references from other ecologists.

Well done Aidan!