Satellite captures massive smoke and haze over china

Smoke (aka creosote) was used to cure / treat TB in ‘the old days’. Smoke is used to preserve meats.
Fear of smoke is excessive. Yes, you ought not to get too much of it in your lifetime, but the practical use of plant smoke has saved a lot of lives. Both as “medicinal” prior to antibiotics and as food preservative.
There’s a difference between wood / plant smoke and synthetic chemical smoke, so please don’t rant at me about ‘other smokes’. Also note: Tobacco killed my Dad and likely my Mom, so don’t bother with some off base tobacco rant. This is entirely and only about the historical and valid uses of wood / plant smokes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creosote
Larrea tridentata, or the so-called creosote bush, as named after its distinct creosote smell, was used by Native Americans in the Southwest as a treatment for many maladies. The Coahuilla Indians used the plant for intestinal complaints and tuberculosis. The Pima drank a decoction of the leaves as an emetic, and applied the boiled leaves as poultices to wounds or sores.[19] Papago Indians prepared it medicinally for stiff limbs, snake bites, and menstrual cramps.[20] Guaiacum, after which the guaiacol in creosote was named, was used by native Caribbean islanders to treat tropical diseases and later for syphilis.[21][22]
During antiquity, pitches and resins were used commonly as medicines. Pliny mentions a variety of tar-like substances being used as medicine, including cedria and pissinum.[23] Cedria was the pitch and resin of the cedar tree, being equivalent to the oil of tar and pyroligneous acid which are used in the first stage of distilling creosote.[24][25] He recommends cedria to ease the pain in a toothache, as an injection in the ear in case of hardness of hearing, to kill parasitic worms, as a preventative for impregnation, as a treatment for phthiriasis and porrigo, as an antidote for the poison of the sea hare, as a liniment for elephantiasis, and as an ointment to treat ulcers both on the skin and in the lungs.[25] He further speaks of cedria being used as the embalming agent for preparing mummies.[23] Pissinum was a tar water that was made by boiling cedria, spreading wool fleeces over the vessels to catch the steam, and then wringing them out.[26][27]
The Pharmacopeé of Lyons, published in 1786, says that cedar tree oil can induce vomiting, and suggests it helps medicate tumors and ulcers.[28][29] Physicians contemporary to the discovery of creosote recommended ointments and pills made from tar or pitch to treat skin diseases.[28] Tar water had been used as a folk remedy since the Middle Ages to treat affections like dyspepsia. Bishop Berkeley wrote several works on the medical virtues of tar water, including a philosophical work in 1744 titled Siris: a chain of philosophical reflexions and inquiries concerning the virtues of tar water, and divers other subjects connected together and arising one from another, and a poem where he praised its virtues.[30] Pyroligneous acid was also used at the time in a medicinal water called Aqua Binelli.[28]
Given this history, and the anti-septic properties known to creosote, it became popular among physicians in the 19th century. A dilution of creosote in water was sold in pharmacies as Aqua creosoti, as suggested by the previous use of pyroligneous acid. It was prescribed to quell the irritability of the stomach and bowels and detoxify, treat ulcers and abscesses, neutralize bad odors, and stimulate the mucous tissues of the mouth and throat.[31][32] Creosote in general was listed as an irritant, styptic, antiseptic, narcotic, and diuretic, and in small doses when taken internally as a sedative and anaesthetic. It was used to treat ulcers, and as a way to sterilize the tooth and deaden the pain in case of a tooth-ache.[31]