Just because it smells nicer and we pretend water filtration helps, doesn't make it heathier. Hookah is often worse because a long Hookah session can have more nicotine than a pack of cigarettes.
>USA actually has pretty strict emissions standards for diesel engines, so most cars on the road are relatively clean burning gasoline cars.
If by that you mean bad smelling poorly running clunkers everywhere then yes. But mostly because we don't do emissions testing at all outside of one or two cities in my state.
I'm aware we're technically strict, but I don't see the EPA shutting down roll coal culture any time soon. It took us this long to catch Cummins[1] after VW got dragged through the courts. At this point I find it hard to believe any diesel motor truly passes US emission standards.
Out here in the Southern US that's just the norm. I can smell poorly running 10-40 year old trucks and cars every day along side the newest diesel truck trying to roll coal on a Prius for shits and giggles. Add on top of that smelling peoples cigarette smoke two cars over and seeing them litter the cigarette butt.
We didn't get a Bar smoking ban locally until recently and at first it only targeted bars that serve food.
My boss likes to say "wow you must be drinking some strong stuff on the weekends after this job." Because apparently that's the ideal way to cope with abusive workloads.
He's not far off since you do cope with a depressant drug, just a different one with a different risk profile. And I don't know about you, but it tanks my productivity worse than alcohol all the way through the next day depending on the form. So maybe he's making a comment about that.
