London Ulez Restored Stunted Children's Lungs, Study Finds
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- Researchers at Queen Mary University of London tracked 1,664 London children and 1,750 Luton children aged six to nine from 2018 to 2022, finding London kids initially had significantly smaller lungs that improved to match Luton peers after Ulez launched in 2019.
- London children's exposure to nitrogen dioxide fell twice as fast and twice as much as Luton children's within five years of Ulez's introduction, with lung-function gains tracking the air-quality improvements.
- Previous research cited in the study found that by age eight or nine, children in London's most polluted areas had 5-10% less lung capacity than peers elsewhere — putting them at higher lifetime risk of asthma, COPD, cardiovascular disease and premature death.
- Mayor Sadiq Khan, who explicitly cited Londoners' health to justify Ulez in 2019, said the findings vindicate the policy, accusing opponents of 'cynically' turning public health 'into a crude culture war.'
- Health minister Karin Smyth called the study 'a powerful reminder' that air-quality reductions can restore normal lung growth, saying it supports the government's goal to give every child 'the best start in life.'
- Stephen Burgess, professor of biostatistics at the University of Cambridge, cautioned that Covid-era changes to pollution levels and traffic patterns make it hard to isolate Ulez as the cause, though he agreed the finding on childhood lung development is encouraging.
Why it matters: London children regained lung function that decades of traffic pollution had suppressed, strengthening the case — now backed by before-and-after evidence rather than theory — for ambitious clean-air zones in other cities, though one independent biostatistician warned Covid-related confounders complicate attribution to Ulez itself.
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