'Green' push for diesel leaves London choking amid record air pollution

London

EVERY winter, as if on cue, the coughing begins and Tara Carey, an international aid worker living in London, ritually places cough syrup on her bedside table because she knows her sleep will be punctuated by hacking coughs. She also coughs at work. And while cycling to her office, on a road so toxic that for a brief period last month the air pollution there was greater than in infamously smoggy Beijing.

With her cough persisting winter after winter, Ms Carey, 43, sought medical help. She was shocked by the doctor's diagnosis: asthma.