*And it’s not like it’s 1939 and the Illinois soft coal dust is completely blocking sunlight (yes, that did actually happen here).*
It was like that all the time?
It was like that all the time?
70 years ago, yes. The older buildings here still have coal dust on them. In 1939, one week, it was so dark, the street lamps never went off. There were places out in the county where kids were sent to get sunlight because they were so vitamin D deficient, their bones were weak. So, in 1940, StL instituted a ban on Illinois soft coal and the majority of the smoke disappeared. It was expensive, but one of the few cases where an environmental law was actually necessary.