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From: ganns@hound.UUCP (R.GANNS)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: re Califoo
Message-ID: <1402@hound.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 10-Oct-85 08:48:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: hound.1402
Posted: Thu Oct 10 08:48:34 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Oct-85 17:39:47 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
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 Re posting by M. Van Ammers, I too suffered from "smogitis";
for a while I thought it was just me --- psychosomatic or some such,
but after living there five years, came to realize that the air
down there was just plain toxic. I worked for the Forest Service
on the Angeles National Forest above Pasadena my last summer there,
working on recreational (horse & hike) trail maintenance and
construction, and also had the thrilling experience of working on
brush fires (talk about the Fear of God....); towards the end of
September, I couldn't sleep at night, couldn't fill my lungs more
than 1/3 full without going into lengthy spasms of coughing; I
finally woke up to the realization that the region was, for me,
utterly uninhabitable, and promptly packed up and moved up to
Humboldt County (the air was great!).

One can claim that the air is no worse than that found in other
big cities, but my experience is that's not true. I now live
a few miles from Newark, NJ, and while the air is pretty foul
in some areas, where I live it is at least breatheable without
one's body going into near-convulsions. There are several reasons
why LA smog is as bad as it is, one of which is that people down
there generally refuse to admit what a problem it is.