Study sees a 13% reduction in asthma medication for children born in a low emission zone

The Berlin-based Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) has teamed up with the Universities of Frankfurt am Main and Maastricht to investigate the health effects for children who are born within an urban low emission zone (LEZ). Primarily as a measure against particulate matter (PM) from diesel engines, more than 200 cities in Europe alone have now set up LEZs, banning cars above certain exhaust emission levels.

The team focused on the time span during pregnancy to the first birthday of a child, during which children are specifically vulnerable to toxicological effects of pollution. The study focused on Germany, using official air quality measurements and anonymised patient data from the largest public health insurance in Germany, AOK, covering about a third of the country’s population.

Investigations compared medical prescriptions for newborn children living in urban areas between 2006 (two years before the first LEZs got introduced) and 2017. It looked at data from cities that introduced a LEZ early, and cities with similar weather conditions and socio-economic composition that introduced such a zone later.

The study confirms previous findings that LEZs in Germany have led to a 5% reduction in PM pollution, and the analysis of medical prescriptions yields significant new findings. It was found that LEZs produce a significant cost reduction for the public health system over 5 years, of which 92% stem from asthma medications. The number of asthma prescriptions was found to reduce by 13% by the fifth birthday when comparing children spending the time in the womb and the first year of life in a LEZ compared to those that were not, with the cost saving as high as 21%. Overall, medical cost savings for children as a result of being born into LEZs is approximately €30 million until 2017.

“Our quasi-experimental research approach offers plenty of room to look more broadly at the benefits of policies, depending on the data," stated Nicolas Koch, postdoc in the Policy Evaluation Lab at MCC and co-author of the study. "This is generally relevant for the evaluation of environmental and climate policies—and not least with regard to wider driving bans. There will likely be heated debates on this kind of interventions, and thus a need to quantify health effects properly."