Clean-air zone linked to healthier lungs in London children, seven years after landmark rollout

A study has found that London's ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) led to improved lung size and function among the city's children, according to The Guardian. In an op-ed for the newspaper, Mayor Sadiq Khan said the finding vindicates the scheme he introduced more than seven years ago, which he described as the hardest decision of his tenure. "Critics said I was attacking motorists. It's more important for me that the city's children are no longer breathing dangerous levels of pollution." Khan acknowledged the fierce opposition, including claims that he had declared war on drivers, but said the new evidence changes the conversation. The Ulez was first confirmed in a london.gov.uk announcement by then-Mayor Boris Johnson, who described it as the world's first such zone. The statement said: "a major environmental initiative to reduce harmful vehicle exhaust pollutants in London by more than half from 2020." The announcement included a £65 million fund to support taxi drivers transitioning to zero-emission vehicles, plus £25 million from the government. According to london.gov.uk, the decision followed a consultation that received more than 16,000 responses, with 79 per cent in favour of improving London's air quality. Khan later expanded the scheme, first to inner London and then to the entire city, making it the biggest clean-air zone in the world, The Guardian reported. The two accounts, seven years apart, frame the same policy in very different terms: an ambitious first step under Johnson, and a hard-fought legacy under Khan. The study's finding on children's lung health, reported by The Guardian, is now the measure by which its success is being judged.

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