Just saw a show on PBS American Experience called "Cleaning the Air: The War on Smog
Very informative on the Smog problem in LA and why it was so different to most other parts in the country. The science behind the discovery of what the cause was and the science behind how they cleaned it up and the start of Nixon’s Clean Air Act.
‘Air Pollution Linked to Cancer-Causing Gene Changes in Nonsmokers’
‘For nonsmokers, air pollution may be an even greater risk factor for lung cancer than secondhand tobacco smoke, a study published in Nature suggests.’
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09219-0
Some small cities have terrible air pollution problems, even today. Logan Utah sits in a bowl. During an inversion pollution is trapped under a warm layer of air. They have bad air days despite being far from any big city.
I moved to Pasadena in 1971 - I remember the terrible smog. Many days we couldn’t see the San Gabriel mountains. I remember seeing the limited visibility just looking down California boulevard. It seems ‘American experience’ will be a casualty of PBS cutbacks. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/arts/television/american-experience.html
We used to drive through Logan enroute to Bear Lake in the 70s. Do they still have Spudnuts?
Even growing up in Syracuse NY in the 50’s and 60’s. I remember driving into Syracuse from where we lived north of Syracuse on a clear sunny day and NOT being able to see the skyline because of smog. Then a few years after the clean air act you could see the skyline miles away. It was amazing how much cleaner the air became.
I grew up in Dayton Ohio…. A bowl where smog decided to rest! Noticeable on sunny days.
But my parents smoked, cars stunk in traffic so we didn’t smell the smog as much as we saw it.
Much better today because cars have cleaner exhaust, people smoke far less and the population of Dayton is half what it was when I was a kid.
A few years after the advent of PCV systems on cars, I began to realize just how much blow-by we always smelled when we were stopped in traffic. Obviously, the automotive emissions controls that came later were even more significant, but just adding PCV systems actually made a noticeable difference.
No. There are four and they are all in WA.
The oldest cars had draft tubes thst vented the crankcase vapors to the road. It made a distinctive black path down the middle of all roads.
Ah, too bad, we had a small shop in Ogden, but I was transferred out of Utah in 1976.
I remember them very clearly.