You know we’re all about vintage photos, especially of Los Angeles. This shot was made there in 1951 from the 32 story tower of City Hall and shows… well, not very much because of the smog. The first time a smog bank like this rose up in L.A., in 1943, residents panicked because they thought the Japanese had unleashed a gas attack. By the 1950s it was a regular occurrence. Smog in in the City of Angels has improved vastly since then, but living there still means inhaling the equivalent of about 180 cigarettes a year. The most complete global pollution study ever conducted was published by the World Health Organization last year. The result? Scientists learned that air pollution kills seven million people a year—more than AIDS, more than malaria, more than warfare. We have a few more shots from around the same time period below.
