8

◼ REMARKS

A yearago,mywife,Leslie,andI embarkedonanadventure,

movingwithourtwosonsfromSeattletoLondon.Weputthe

boys’playhouseonthestreet,huggedourcedartreegoodbye

and,seeminglyinaneyeblink,landedatHeathrow,wherethe

kindcrewoftheBritishAirways 747 broughtoursons,then

7 and5,intothecockpit.Theyperchedonseatscoveredin

furrysheepskinwhilethecaptain,strangely,confidedhisdis-

appointmentinhisdaughter’snewcareerasa veterinarian.

Itwasa kindofhomecoming.I’dlivedinLondonin

my20s,duringtheheydayofOasisandTonyBlair—Cool

Britannia—andwasexcitedtoreturnasa seasonedjournal-

ist.Wemovedintoa semidetachedhouseinCrouchEnd,

nearcricketpitchesandtenniscourts,acrossfroma stopfor

theW7busthattookmetotheTubeandontoBloomberg’s

officesintheCity.It wasInstagrammablestuff,exceptfor

thepungentchlorine-likesmellofexhaustfromthediesel-

poweredcars,buses,andtaxiscrowdingLondon’ship

streets.EvenFortnum& Masonsmelledlikea petrolstation.

Nocity’sperfect.Weenteredbadsmellsinthedeficit

columnofourmoveandtriedtosettlein.Bylastfall,two

monthsafterwe’darrived,I noticedthata raspyfeelingin

thebackofmythroatneverreallywentaway.Myvoicehad

a newresonant depth, like a smoker’s. My chest felt tight. My

asthma,a routineconditionI’dmanagedwithoutaproblem

inSeattle,wasflaringupinLondon.

I wenttomylocalNationalHealthServiceclinic,entered

anexamroom,andblewintoaspirometer. My lung capac-

ity was 5% less than normal; nothing unusual to the doctor,

who handed me a peak flow meter and a spacer, a plastic

holding chamber for an inhaler—the kind my mother uses

in her nursing home—and told me to come in if I noticed

any big changes. At the pharmacy I picked up inhalers, pow-

ders, and pills in a square white bag, folded over at the top

like Chinese takeout.

Anyone who’s seen The Crown knows about the Great

Smog of 1952, when thousands died from coal pollution

during a cold snap and London was, in Cyril Connolly’s

famous phrase, the “largest, saddest, and dirtiest of great

cities.” Before that were the pea souper fogs (also coal smoke)

ofVictoriandays.I’dreadaboutrecentconcernsoveremis-

sionsofparticulatesandnitrogendioxide(NO2) , tiedlargely

tothemassiveadoptionofdieselvehicles:12.4millioninthe

U.K.today,upfrom1.6millionwhenI leftin1998;andacross

Europe,morethan 50 million. But I’d assumed, like many in

the West, that pollution was a Third World problem and that

stringent-seeming European Union regulations were gradu-

ally cleaning the air.

Now, my own lungs burning, I began noticing things I’d

looked past in the pell-mell of everyday life: One London

friend’s strapping teenage son had asthma; another’s daugh-

ter suffered from unexplained breathing problems. I spot-

ted a twentysomething taking a squirt from his inhaler

before watching a National Theatre production of Antony

& Cleopatra. The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, has adult-onset

SCAN

THE

LONDON’S

OF

● And Europe’s, as heavily subsidized

diesel engines endanger health

● By Peter Robison