Photos: L.A.’s mid-century smog was so bad, people thought it was a gas attack

<p>Urban air pollution is often seen as an unfortunate but inevitable byproduct of industrialization. Everyone wants the economic engine that produces smog &mdash; but no one wants to live with the consequences. The result, largely, is a correlation between pollution and income levels. Even today, more than fifty years since Angelenos began demanding better protection from bad air, the&nbsp;<a href="https://la.curbed.com/2013/4/23/10251050/las-poor-and-hipstery-neighborhoods-are-most-polluted-in-ca-1" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">heaviest levels</a>&nbsp;of pollution are in low income communities.</p> <p><img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:628/1*5RU9AlyLT-VHpEDHwCFpJQ.jpeg" style="height:800px; width:628px" /></p> <p>Pedestrians on Broadway dab their eyes or don gas masks to protect from air pollution in 1958. ((Herald-Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library)</p> <p>But L.A. has come a long way. In 1943, the first big smog scare sent residents running from what they assumed was a Japanese gas attack. The city&rsquo;s once clear coastal air had become a tear-inducing haze, and no one knew what was causing it.&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="https://timeline.com/la-smog-pollution-4ca4bc0cc95d"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>
Tags: gas Attack