TRAGEDY OF THE GIRL, 9, KILLED BY AIR POLLUTION
ELLA’S LEGACY WILL BE TO PROTECT OTHER CHILDREN, VOWS CAMPAIGNING MUM
THE mother of a nine-year-old girl who died after suffering an asthma attack declared ‘we’ve got justice’ after a coroner ruled air pollution contributed to her daughter’s death.
But Rosamund Kissi-Debrah vowed the ‘matter is far from over’ because other youngsters remain exposed to illegal levels of fumes.
Her daughter Ella died in 2013 after 27 visits to hospitals in three years due to seizures and asthma attacks.
She lived just 80ft from London’s South Circular Road, in Lewisham, where dangerous levels of pollution are regularly recorded.
It is believed to be the first time air pollution exposure had been listed as a medical cause of death in the UK.
Coroner Philip Barlow said London had ‘still not reached compliance limits’ under EU and domestic law.
He added: ‘Ella’s mother had not been given information about the health risks of air pollution. If she had she would have taken steps which might have prevented Ella’s death.’
Mrs Kissi-Debrah said after yesterday’s ruling: ‘Yes, this was about my daughter, getting air pollution on the death certificate which we finally have, and we’ve got the justice for her which she so deserved.
‘But also it’s about other children. There are still illegal levels of air pollution now, as we speak. There’s a lack of understanding about the damage it does to young lungs.’
She said she hoped Ella’s legacy would be to prompt a new Clean Air Act and make governments around the world ‘take this matter seriously’.
And she added: ‘I think for Ella it would be about (stopping) other children suffering.’