Cleaner air gave 3,400 city kids stronger lungs

Children living inside London's ultra low-emissions zone are growing stronger lungs as traffic pollution falls, according to a study from Queen Mary University that tracked just over 3,400 kids aged 6 to 9. Researchers compared young Londoners with peers in nearby Luton, measuring how much air each child could force out in a single second. When the study began, Luton had cleaner air and its children's lungs were developing faster. Then the ULEZ took hold in 2019, nitrogen dioxide dropped, and the numbers shifted. Four years on, London children were breathing an extra 233 milliliters into the device each year, edging past their suburban neighbours. The proportion of Central London children with impaired lung function, which can include asthma, fell from 14% to 9% as the air improved. The city that gave the world pea-soup fog now has children quietly out-breathing the suburbs.