After London introduced the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), children’s lung size and function improved. This matters not only now: it is in childhood that the level of lung function carried into adulthood is established.
Researchers followed schoolchildren in London and Luton. Before ULEZ was launched, London children’s lungs were smaller on average. Then the measures began to improve and moved closer to those of their peers in Luton.
Why children? Their lungs are still developing, so it is possible to see not only the harm of pollution, but also a change in the developmental path. In addition, children are less affected by other factors that influence the lungs, such as smoking and exposure to harmful substances at work.
Clean air matters for adults too, but children make the effect especially visible: less pollution means better conditions for lung development. This is now an argument not only about the environment, but also about healthcare economics for decades ahead.
