In March 2015, as part of the ongoing research of the Southern California Children's Health Study, a paper documenting improvement in children's lung function as a direct result of decline in pollutant levels (nitrogen dioxide and fine particles) across Southern California was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), one of the funders of the research, recognized the paper as one of the top 25 papers of 2015.
The New England Journal of Medicine recognized the paper as one of the top 12 papers that was published by the journal in 2015.
The direct link to a summary of the article on the NEJM website can be found here.
More: press release and a summary of press coverage of the article.
W. James Gauderman, Ph.D., Robert Urman, M.S., Edward Avol, M.S., Kiros Berhane, Ph.D., Rob McConnell, M.D., Edward Rappaport, M.S., Roger Chang, Ph.D., Fred Lurmann, M.S., and Frank Gilliland, M.D., Ph.D. Association of Improved Air Quality with Lung Development in Children.
N Engl J Med 2015; 372:905-913March 5, 2015 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1414123