The first gray-brown stains appeared in the azure skies above Los Angeles before the outset of World War I. During World War II, the summer haze was beginning to sting the eyes and shroud the mountains that ring the city. By the mid-'50s, Los Angeles' smog, as the noxious vapor had been dubbed, was sufficiently thick and persistent to wilt crops, obstruct breathing and bring angry housewives into the streets waving placards and wearing gas masks. Oil companies were urged to cut sulfur emissions. Cars were required to use unleaded gas, and exhausts were fitted with catalytic converters. But as the...
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