Not so much smog here in Switzerland more mist in the mountains and clouds. However, I grew up in London when smog was the daily weather situation. I remember walking to school, being about 8 years old and when I arrived would sneeze in my handkerchief which was afterwards full of black thick soot from the air. Today it would be a subject for health and safety, but then it was just a condition you had to get used to and live with. We school children were confronted with the situation daily. It came probably from the factories in the area, their chimneys bursting with soot and bad air conditions. We all survived more or less. Perhaps it helped me that with 20 years I decided to live in another country, and eventually chose Switzerland, finding work there. Switzerland is known for clean air, mountains and no great health problems from the atmosphere We have our annual mists in Autumn, but nothing dangerous or caused from bad air from factories, more from natural causes. However, smog is not pleasant and causes many respiratory illnesses.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 
We had it in Denver from temperature inversion and traffic. It’s better now because cars have fewer emissions, but I’m not there so better still!
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Our problem is mainly fire that breaks out in a factory where we would get a warning to keep windows shut. Thank goodness that Switzerland is a small country, although not better in viromental effects.
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I remember smog in Romford in the early 60s. Some days mum would put scarves over our faces when she took us out.
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It is the journey to school that remains in my memory from the smog days. Our house in Bethnal Green seeed to be on the main route for lorries travelling in London.
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I heard about conditions in the 1950s and 60s in Ludwigshafen (next to BASF, the world largest chemical plant) and apparently on bad days women would get holes in their nylons because of the fumes (yikes!). While trying to find that information which I had heard in a clip a few years ago (couldn’t find it so I cannot inform), I read that the last time there was smog alarm in Germany was in the 1990s. No reason to rejoice, though: that was smog. Nowadays we have bad air because of “fine particulate matter” (Feinstaub). – It’s similar with rivers. They are a lot cleaner nowadays than they used to be – but they do carry more toxic substances which cannnot be seen as readily. And “cleaner” doesn’t necessarily mean “clean”.
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Things have not really improved throughout the years just different to what they were. Smog alarm is no longer so bad in London, but there is pollution everywhere: in the rivers, in the air, generally in the environsment. In Switzerland it is mainly the chemical plants that can be a cause. As I live in a farming area we are not so muh affected. Cows just have a natural smell from nature.
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