Pollution levels at the Lewisham site where the first person worldwide to have air pollution listed as the cause of death grew up have decreased considerably, Eastlondonlines can disclose.
Ella Roberta Kissi Debrah, who lived 25 meters from the South Circular in Lewisham and suffered from asthma, died at the age of 9 in February 2013. After a historic inquest, she had air pollution listed as the cause of death on her death certificate.
Lewisham Council has since taken a number of initiatives to reduce air pollution levels in the borough. Councillor Louise Krupski, Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Action in Lewisham, told ELL: “Over the past decade, our borough has made significant progress in reducing air pollution by promoting walking and cycling, introducing emissions-based parking charges, installing more electric vehicle charging points and advocating for the expansion of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone.
“We’ve partnered with schools, businesses, and communities to launching anti-idling campaigns and run air pollution workshops, as well as investing in our green spaces and planting more street trees. Our participation in pan-London campaigns to reduce air pollution and the expansion of our air quality monitoring network underline our dedication to improving air quality in Lewisham.”
The key evidence at the inquest determing Ella’s cause of death came from Professor Sir Stephen Holgate, a consultant respiratory physician at the University of Southampton. He examined Ella’s medical papers and came to the conclusion that, in his opinion, the severity of her asthma, and also her death, were linked to the high levels of air pollution in the area where she lived.
Louise Mittal, a colleague of Holgate from the Environmental Research Group at Imperial College London, has now told Eastlondonlines that although the levels of pollution are now within the legal limit, she “can’t say if a similar death to Ella’s would be unlikely now.”
Mittal shared data with ELL from a measuring site near the London South Circular, where Ella grew up. She said that in 2013, when Ella died, the NO2 concentration was 48 µgm-3, exceeding the 40 µgm-3 target set by the Air Quality Strategy Objective.
Lewisham has also contributed £2,000 for a statue to be built in Ella’s honour, which Lewisham Mayor, Damien Egan says is “a really special way to remember Ella, as well as an important talking point and way to improve air quality right here in [Mountsfield] park.”
More on the proposed statue here.
Ella’s mother, Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, commissioned the statue together with the Ella Roberta family foundation, which she founded. She believes not all traffic schemes are as beneficial as others.
Kissi Debrah said in an interview with the BBC: “Certain people have lobbied their council and have managed to get LTNs in (their area) and have pushed all the traffic on to areas like the South Circular where the most deprived live.”
She stressed the importance of expanding public transport and has spoken to Sadiq Khan about increasing bus services. She also spoke to City Hall about making sure financial assistance schemes reach more Londoners.
London City and Lewisham council’s measures have been relatively effective.
Mittal told ELL: “In 2022, the annual mean concentration at the new site was 25 µgm-3; the new site is actually closer to the road than the old one, suggesting that the concentration could be lower at the original location.”
The pollution levels recorded from other measuring sites in the area have also reduced considerably and are below Defra’s Air Quality Strategy Objective of 40 µgm-3 annual mean NO2 concentration.
However, the World Health Organisation states this concentration of pollution as being an ‘interim goal’.
According to Mittal, more needs to be done. She said: “The concentrations at these locations are still above the WHO guideline NO2 value of 10 µgm-3, so there is still room for improvement.”
A statement on the council’s website says that it is following Defra’s annual mean National Air Quality Objectives, but it is: “committed to working towards the WHO air quality guidelines.”
Krupski told ELL: “While we are continuing to make progress in this area, there is still more work to do to tackle air pollution and protect the health of all our residents.”
Research by the Clean Air Fund and CBI Economics suggests that if air quality in the UK were to meet WHO guidelines, 17,000 deaths could be prevented each year.
