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Background: A quarter of Edinburgh's schoolchildren ill with nose and throat infections, parts of Loch Mess frozen for the first time in ten years, Glasgow hospitals stockpiling oxygen - that's the result of the last week's fog and frost. The Scottish Lowlands are paralysed by the fog blanket and traffic in the Clyde is at a standstill.

Edinburgh's plight on Feb 3 was typical of the region. Cars crept through the fog, the crawling buses were forsaken by travellers, and many people were on the sick list with respiratory illnesses.

This present spate of fog is the worst since the 'killer' of December 1952. When after a three day smog, Dec 5-8, between 3,500 and 4,000 people died in excess of the average seasonal respiratory deaths.

Most of Britain has suffered from the recent fog, and Glasgow and London hospitals filled with respiratory cases are refusing all but urgent sufferers.