Lighting before/during gaslight was in some ways worse than that, people routinely lit their homes and workplaces with nasty lamp fuels. You could either burn turpentine (which was smokey) or turpentine and alcohol (which wasn't, but was volatile and prone to exploding and setting people on fire).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camphine

Better options existed but weren't as affordable.