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Nine-year-old Ella Adoo Kissi-Debrah has become the first person in the UK to have air pollution officially listed as a cause of death. This ruling has been the result of a tireless campaign by Ella’s mother Rosamund, which attracted worldwide attention and placed a particular focus on the links between children’s health and air quality.
Several organisations linked to the building services sector, including the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA), have welcomed the historic ruling from Southwark Coroner’s Court. They hope it will speed up action to tackle air pollution and amend building legislation to ensure buildings can become “safe havens” that protect children within their homes and schools from outdoor air pollution. This campaign has also been backed by Ella’s mother.
Having been admitted to hospital 27 times within three years, and after several severe asthma attacks, Ella passed away in 2013. The coroner’s ruling was that air pollution made a “material contribution” to Ella’s death, and that there was also a lack of information about local air quality given to Ella's mother that possibly contributed to her death.
According to Coroner Philip Barlow, the levels of air pollution that Ella had been exposed to were “excessive”, and the levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) around her home far exceeded guidelines set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
A 2018 report by international child asthma expert Professor Sir Stephen Holgate stated that unlawful levels of pollution were detected at a monitoring station just one mile from both Ella’s school and home, contributing to the asthma attack that resulted in her death.
Speaking at the last two BESA National Conferences Ella’s mother, who is also honorary president of the Association’s Health & Wellbeing in Buildings Group, argued that building professionals must do more to protect children by improving indoor air quality. Rosamund pointed to research by Professor Holgate that showed how indoor air quality can often be as much as 13 times worse than outside air. However, she also pointed out that it can be controlled by improving building ventilation systems.
We now know that in Europe at least 80% of people spend around 90% of their time indoors – the figures for children are often higher. As a leader in the field of indoor air quality, we know how important it is to ensure that indoor environments help improve the health and wellbeing of their occupants. We should let you know that we have a self-interest in raising the awareness of indoor air quality, and that the HVAC industry has solutions today to solve indoor air quality challenges, but we also believe it to be a genuinely important area that government and society overall must be aware of and act upon.
This historic ruling has reiterated the importance of indoor air quality, and we are more motivated than ever to work tirelessly with the building services industry to provide solutions that ensure indoor environments are both healthy and safe.
