Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Damage to lungs at an early age is irreversible
CHILDREN’S lives are being put at risk as the choking pollution of cars on school runs causes damage that cannot be fixed, experts warn.
And in a bid to tackle the dangerous levels of toxic air linked to a rise in young asthma cases, hundreds of heads across the country are piloting bans on vehicles parking near the gates.
Thousands more are expected to trial the schemes, backed by a number of measures including £50 fines and fixed penalties leading to points on licences.
But parents and experts now want the ban rolled out across the country, as figures show one in four cars on the road at peak times are on the school run.
The British Lung Foundation backed the call. Director of policy and communications Alison Cook said: My daughter Ella was a healthy, happy child winning numerous gymnastics medals.
But that changed a few months before her seventh birthday when she developed a chest infection and was diagnosed with asthma.
Doctors at Great Ormond Street said it was one of the worst cases of child asthma they had seen.
By the time she died in February
2013, she had been in hospital 27 times.
A leading expert in child asthma and air pollution discovered 26 of those times coincided with very high spikes in pollution.
The night she died was one of our area’s highest recorded spikes in nitrogen dioxide and PM10S, the most noxious pollutants.
The night Ella died was one of our area’s highest spikes in pollutants