Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah [Richard-Maidment]

THE climate crisis must be understood as a public health crisis, a woman whose daughter died after exposure to air pollution said this week.

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who will be joining us at the NLCop this Saturday, lost her daughter Ella in 2013 after systematic exposure to air pollution left her in acute respiratory failure.

Ella died aged just nine years old, a bright little girl who loved sports, music and reading. In 2019, a coroner ruled that living near a highly polluted road had both caused Ella’s asthma and worsened it.

In the lead-up to her death, Ella suffered a series of serious asthma attacks. On the day of her death, Ella experienced an asthma attack of such severity that it left her in cardiac arrest from which she could not be resuscitated.

Since her daughter’s death in 2013, Ms Kissi-Debrah has campaigned for recognition of the severe health impacts air pollution has on the body. In 2019, the coroner reopened an investigation into Ella’s death, eventually listing “air pollution exposure” as its cause.

After the second inquest, Ms Kissi-Debrah began campaigning for Ella’s Law, legislation that would guarantee the right to clean air as a human right. The bill has recently had its second reading in the House of Lords.

Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah

“We have Ella’s Law going through,” Ms Kissi-Debrah said. “The current Environment Act is very weak – it doesn’t cover PM2.5 [fine particulate matter].”

Late last month, the government missed its legal deadline to set binding targets on air and water quality as well as nature and waste management.

“Due to all the chaos, that didn’t happen. I feel there needs to be something to protect people from air pollution,” Ms Kissi-Debrah said. “What Ella’s Law means is that every decision the government or developers make, they will need to consider air pollution and the impact it will have. It will hold them accountable, and what I mean by that is that the government for the last 10 years has always breached the EU level [of acceptable air pollution levels]. They were fined multiple times.

“We’re hoping the new government may adopt all of Ella’s Law, or they may adopt a significant part of it. “But this government is not big on human rights – they want to change the Human Rights Act into a Bill of Rights. They never make laws stronger, they make them weaker.”

Ms Kissi-Debrah said it was important to begin understanding air quality in relation to health outcomes: “Air quality is turning into a public health issue. It affects everybody. The reason your readers need to be interested [in North London COP] is: there is a direct link between air quality and cancer in non-smokers. The quality of the air we breathe is incredibly important. It’s an environmental issue but it’s also about health.”

Ms Kissi-Debrah will be speaking on our final panel of the day, 3-4pm: Direct action and the law: how far should protest go?