A new five-year study, the Children’s Health in London and Luton (CHILL) study, is investigating whether clean air zones are associated with lung health in young children. The study, published in the Lancet Public Health, is a prospective two-arm parallel cohort study.
The research involves over 3,400 children aged 6-9 years from 84 primary schools in Central London, where the ULEZ was first implemented, and Luton, which serves as a comparator site without clean air zones.
Researchers are examining the children’s forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), a measure of how much air can be forcefully exhaled in one second, in relation to their exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2). NO2 is a pollutant that reflects exhaust pollution.
The study aims to determine if improvements in air quality following the introduction of ULEZ were associated with lung growth in children living in London.