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 — 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 <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> 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’s once clear coastal air had become a tear-inducing haze, and no one knew what was causing it. </p>
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