Air pollution is often accepted as part of life in urban areas. But new studies have shown that our complacency could come at the expense of our health. And we need to do more if we want to avoid an increasingly smoggy future. Results of a long-term study on the effects of air pollution on children's health were recently published in the pre-eminent medical journal The New England Journal of Medicine. This Children's Health Study is the largest ever of its kind, examining the cumulative exposure effect of various pollutants on more than 1,700 children from 12 southern California communities over eight years.