Yeah, the traditional steel towns were filthy back in the day. I remember the Gary, IN steel mills and Chicago stockyards from the 40’s and 50’s, I lived right in the cross hairs of both of them. They needed to be fixed and they were. My beef is with today’s “environmentalists” whining pukes who have no clue what bad air was like!
You are right. If we had today’s air back in 1960 or so, no one would have even thought of needing a “Clean Air Act.”