On the bright side, I wanted nothing to do with cigarettes from a young age.
I took the family to Europe in 2019, in terms of smokers and smoking it was like going back in time compared to the US.
I figure it's because of snus, which is smart on them; I'll always have a soft spot for the stuff, because it got me off cigarettes.
Every other country in the EU has a higher adult smoking rate than the 14% in the US; second place is UK at 17%.
https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-...
California is 11%, West Virginia is 25%. I'm sure the disparities are even greater when you look at smaller populations (e.g. county, metro, city, etc).
Last time we went back to France, we took the kid to the playground and adults were smoking a few meters away from the slides. After double-checking that there was indeed a sign indicating that smoking was forbidden, I told them to step and they did, but apparently nobody else cared.
I haven't see that happen yet in the SF Bay. Obviously though, we get wildfire smoke for several months, and right after that people start burning wood in their open fireplaces for winter, so it's not all rosy either.
With the large refinery making fuel for far more vehicles than this one moderate-sized city could ever use.
And with orders of magnitude more emissions than the same noticeably smelly facilities today.