I HAD to take my cat to the vet the other day (she's a one year old Turkish Van) and when the vet examined her he thought he could hear some wheezing. So he took a chest X-ray which showed signs of inflammation, and obtained a sample of mucus which he sent off to a pathology lab (thank heaven for pet insurance).

The report came back that there were signs of inflammation, not many eosinophils which are the sign of a true allergy such as asthma or eczema, but a lot of macrophages - the word means big cells that eat things - with many small black particles in them.

The vet says he sees a lot of this sort of thing, particularly in cats living on, or near, busy roads; so it looks like my cat is suffering the ill effects of urban pollution.

Of course cats are right down at exhaust level, and so are children whether walking or in pushchairs, so they can be exposed to much more of this sort of pollution than we tall people are.

We know that allergies such as hay fever barely existed before the Industrial Revolution, and they are much more common in towns than in the country, so it seems clear that pollution is the real culprit, irritating the nose, lungs and the immune system, and encouraging the development of allergies.

When the campaign to remove lead from petrol was in full swing, it was effectively demonstrated that there is no safe level for lead in the body. This is also true for radiation, and we all carry around some of that in our bodies too, carried to us as airborne particles and inhaled.

And don't forget that we all have detectable levels of pesticides and other chemicals in our bloodstream (and particularly in our fat cells) derived from the food we eat and the water we drink.

The only people in the world who don't have these toxins inside them live deep in the Amazon rain forest.

So we are all carrying around a cocktail of different toxins, the interactions between which are impossible to calculate; effectively we are all engaged in a huge experiment to find out just how much a human, or animal, individual can tolerate before the system goes wrong, and they develop allergies, cancer or other unpleasant effects.

There isn't a lot we can do about it short of moving off the planet, but there are some changes we can make. We can reduce our exposures by filtering water, eating organic as far as possible, and minimising the chemicals in our indoor environment (moving to the country will only work until you get accidentally crop-sprayed).

We can eat more green and yellow vegetables and oily fish, all of which contain protective nutrients (an apple a day keeps the doctor away).

Finally we can get into the habit of taking an anti-oxidant supplement every day - I won't specify which because there are so many in every health food shop and pharmacy.

Even if you don't consider these steps to be important for you, you owe it to your children to get them into good habits now; they are exposed to much more pollution of every sort then we were as children, and they will continue to be exposed for many years to come.

Updated: 09:32 Monday, October 28, 2002