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DATE: 1964 LENGTH: 13 minutes CATEGORY: Educational & Instructional, Sound, Black & White |
SCRIPT AND MEDICAL ADVISOR: Dr. Mary Catterall DIRECTOR: Ken Fensom PRODUCER/PUBLISHER: British Medical Association and British Life Assurance Trust for Health Education |
Summary
Angela Saward from Wellcome Collection, London, delves into the backstory of a film conceived by doctor and activist Mary Catterall. Upon arriving in Leeds, England in the late 1950s with her husband, also a physician, Catterall was shocked at the filthy air, soot-covered homes, and gasping children in this “black town” in England’s industrial north. She treated the ill, developed a mask to improve oxygen absorption for patients with breathing problems, and in her own words, “talked graphically and frequently to doctors, city councilors, trade unions, to administrators, anyone who would listen, and to those who would have preferred not to.” She also worked with student filmmakers to develop It Takes Your Breath Away, a film that graphically illustrates the conditions in Leeds and the devastating human impact of air pollution. At the time the film was made, such pollution was implicated in 30,000 deaths in the UK. In 2021, as this essay is published, comparisons can be made to COVID-19, an illness made more severe when complicated by exposure to harmful air particulates….Read The Essay
Supplementary Materials
Stills from It Takes Your Breath Away

National Library of Medicine #101771068


National Library of Medicine #101771068
In the Collections of the National Library of Medicine
NLM Rare Books & Early Manuscripts Collection
Air pollution in Donora, Pa: Epidemiology of the Unusual Smog Episode of October 1948
Free Films on Air Pollution [Many of these films are available from the National Archives and Records Administration]
NLM Prints & Photographs Collection

National Library of Medicine #101584655X41

National Library of Medicine #101450758

National Library of Medicine #101450738

National Library of Medicine #101450739

National Library of Medicine #101560202
Related Resources from the National Library of Medicine
See current information on air pollution from MedlinePlus and NLM Environmental Health & Toxicology resources.
Medical Research and Control in Air Pollution [American Journal of Public Health, May 1952]
General Atmospheric Pollution, Los Angeles “Smog” by Charles R. Senn, Bureau of Sanitation, Los Angeles, July 1948
Letters from readers on the usefulness of gauze in the nostrils to ward off smog, British Medical Journal, Nov. 7, 1953.
External Resources
Articles and Websites

Environmental Pollution
“Links between air pollution and COVID-19 in England” by Marco Travaglio et al. in Environmental Pollution, January 2021.
The Great Smog of 1952 from the United Kingdom’ national weather service, known as the MetOffice
Death in the Air feature from National Public Radio
Orphan Film Symposium 2020: Climate, Water, Migration. Essay author Angela Saward presented a talk on It Takes Your Breath Away at this event. Dozens of other rare titles dealing with the environment were also presented at the international conference.
Other Related Resources
Learn more about disparities in the impact of air pollution, how to check air quality in your area, and children and the environment.