Ah, for the days of the Stage Three smog alerts in the mid to late 70s, when they’d send us home early from school, and you could taste the smog in the back of your throat on some days.
I will give L.A. some credit for having cleaned up the air a bit.
One might also remember the eye irritation forecasts that were part of the weather reports on the radio--for example, "light to moderate eye irritation can be expected today."