New evidence from Southern California provides dramatic, encouraging evidence that bold policies to reduce pollution in our communities have an incredibly real and positive impact on children’s lung development. Simply put, as air pollution decreased, children’s lung health improved. According to researchers at the University of Southern California, the “Children’s Health Study measured lung development between the ages of 11 and 15 and found large gains for children studied from 2007 to 2011, compared to children of the same age in the same communities from 1994-98 and 1997-2001. The gains in lung function paralleled improving air quality in the communities studied, and across the Los Angeles basin, as policies to fight pollution took hold.”

The study is a compelling reminder about the value of clean air and the need for air pollution reduction policies that build on such successes.

Read more about the study here and here. The study was published in the March 5, 2015 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.