You are wrong. Read on.

I said these gases caused smog. I did not say CO, SOx and NOx are smog itself. And for your information, EPA Region 1 almost equates smog as ozone since ozone causes asthma. Ozone is gas phase.

People care about the visibility issue of smog but even more so about the health effects of all of its components and byproducts, gas, solid or liquid.

People keep getting hung on the gas phases vs PM issue. If I warm up a H2SO4+H2O droplet, it will become gas phase. Can you claim smog is gone? Yes but you are still breathing H2SO4 in gas phase. Same bad health effects.