When I was a six-year-old school pupil, I used to sit besides a little boy. One day he didn’t come into school, and a week later our class wrote a card to him in hospital.

Then our teacher announced that he had died after an asthma attack.

Having had childhood asthma I know what it feels like to have an asthma attack and it is scary.

Although the causes of asthma are difficult to categorically prove, it is widely accepted that poor air quality from traffic fumes are a major aggravating factor.

These days we think of poor air quality as a thing of the past: the combination of fog and coal smoke that was part of London’s history, with dirty, acrid smoke-filled ‘pea-soupers’.

Indeed, in 1952, London suffered a ‘pea souper’ in which 12,000 people are thought to have died as a direct result. This led to the 1956 Clean Air Act, and restrictions on coal burning in the capital to ensure that it never happened again.

But these days, it is not coal burning that is the smog threat but traffic fumes. Because the effects cannot always be easily seen, people tend to feel safer. However, the effects to health can still be tremendously damaging.

In our city we sit in a low-lying area and without much wind, so that in some areas our pollution levels exceed the maximum limits set by the European Union.

To be fair, in comparison to the past, the engine efficiency of cars has improved. What has changed, however, is the usage. People have more cars and are using them more and for much shorter journeys.

Last year, the city council announced that Oxford is to become a low-emission zone, but the new restrictions will apply only to buses and not apply to cars, vans or lorries. But what does this mean for us cyclists and pedestrians?

Despite there being lower levels of pollutants we have more knowledge about their toxicity.

Last August the Oxford Mail reported that levels of pollution in St Aldate’s were the ninth highest in the country. If you cycle through these black spots when pollutants are above maximum recommended levels, you are exposing your lungs to low level ozone – which attacks the linings of your lungs. You might as well smoke a pack of cigarettes.

Changes to buses are one improvement but I feel that the lack of vision by those in power to reduce our air pollution has held back improvements that could help create a city worth cycling in.

But we could do so much more to improve the air quality in our city for our children – indeed everyone.

Now that really would be a breath of fresh air.