The investigation considered the evidence that a nine-year-old teenager died due to illegal levels of air pollution, in a landmark legal case.
A coroner will be asked to rule that a toxic level of nitrogen dioxide from South London’s South Circular Road killed a primary school student, Ila Kisi-Debrah, in a fatal asthma attack. His mother, Rosamund, a former teacher, has fought for years to investigate the role of air pollution from Ilar’s death traffic.
Air pollution was an effective cause of Ella’s death in February 2013. It will make a valid history. It has never been identified as the leading cause of death in the UK and is considered to be the first of its kind in the world.
The interrogation, which began on Monday, was granted after lawyers presented new evidence on behalf of the family that directly linked the severe form of his asthma and his death to heavy vehicles in London’s South Circular near his home in Louisham, south-east London. His death has been linked to air pollution in one of his local areas.
Death ministers will repeatedly investigate the possible failure of government authorities to reduce air pollution and provide the public with information about the risks from toxic air, as well as the extent to which any state has continued to reduce air pollution. Failed to bring in, for which they have been censored by judges several times.
Speaking before the hearing, Rosamund Kissi-Debrah said: “Ella came eight years after the cut, and there has been a long, hard struggle to achieve this quest, including the path challenge. All I want is for Ella to have justice and the certificate of her death is the real reason why she died. “
The first investigation in 2014 did not mention air pollution. Cola-ruled Ella died of acute respiratory failure due to severe asthma. The verdict was overturned in 2019, and the lawyer for the family ordered a new investigation in 2018 after the UK presented evidence to the Attorney General from Sir Stephen Holgate, a leading expert on air pollution in the UK.
Holgate mapped out Ella’s hospital admissions with spikes of air pollution levels around her home. The tragic episode that ended with his death on February 15, 2013, coincided with the worst air pollution in his region.
Initially the levels of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter from diesel traffic in the vicinity of the South Circular exceeded the legal limit above 40 µg / m3, at the time Ella was ill, she was found.
Her report concludes: “The dramatic deterioration of her asthma related to episodes of air pollution may go a long way in explaining the time of her loss over the past four years. The real possibility is that Ella would not have died without illegal levels of air pollution.”
Jocelyn Cockburn, a partner at Hole Jones and Aller Solicitor, who represented Eller’s mother, said it was a special opportunity for me to work with her for the past four years to find answers to her daughter’s death.
“This is a significant achievement to reach this stage, where new investigations will be conducted to verify whether Ella died due to air pollution,” Cockburn said. “The story of Rosarmund’s Ella fight is very powerful and paints a picture of the plight of the people behind the statistics.
“The investigation will examine the actions or inaction of UK government authorities in dealing with air pollution, both during Ella’s lifetime and today – and Corona will consider whether Ella’s death could have been avoided and if education was needed to survive future deaths.”
Kisi-Debrah, one of the first witnesses to testify on Monday, said her daughter would be 116 years old if she survived. “It’s a completely different world without him and I wonder what he would have done if he had been here, what he would have been interested in, what he would have done to the world. “
Katie Neeld, a lawyer for environmental law charity Client Earth, who successfully took the government to court over the level of illegal air pollution, said: “The government is now failing in its existing legal obligations to keep our air safe to breathe for more than ten years. , Nodding and delaying despite court orders – and this indifference is fatal.