The girl suffered from severe asthma causing episodes of cardiac and respiratory arrest, and frequent hospitalizations for three years.
Her medical cause of death was listed as acute respiratory failure, severe asthma and exposure to air pollution. The coroner’s conclusion was that Ella “died of asthma caused by exposure to excessive air pollution.”
Charities Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation said Ella was the first person in world history to list air pollution as the cause of death on her death certificate.
Assistant coroner Philip Barlow said Ella’s mother had received no information about air pollution and asthma that could have prompted her to take measures that “could have prevented her daughter’s death,” PA Media said.
“Air pollution was a major contributing factor in both the induction and worsening of her asthma,” Barlow said as he delivered his conclusions to the Southwark Coroner’s court after a two-week inquest.
“During her illness between 2010 and 2013, she was exposed to levels of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter that exceeded World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.”
“The main source of her exposure was traffic emissions,” he said, according to PA.
Barlow said that during this time it has not been possible to reduce nitrogen dioxide levels to within the limits set by EU and national legislation.
“We have the justice for her that she so deserved,” Ella’s mother, Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, said after the verdict.
But she added, “It’s still about other kids as we walk through our city with high levels of air pollution.”
“Her legacy would be to enact a new Clean Air Act and for governments – I’m not just talking about the British government – governments around the world to take this issue seriously,” Kissi-Debrah said, PA reported. .
“I still think there is a lack of understanding about the damage it causes to young lungs, especially those that don’t actually form.”
Kissi-Debrah said she would rather see a public awareness campaign about the damage air pollution can do “than be blamed.”
A previous court ruling from 2014, which concluded that Ella died of acute respiratory failure, was overturned by the Supreme Court following new evidence about dangerous levels of air pollution close to her home, PA reported.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan called it a “milestone” and praised Ella’s mother for her “extraordinary” courage and years of campaigning.
A 2018 report by Stephen Holgate, a professor at the University of Southampton, found that air pollution at the Catford monitoring station a mile from where Ella lived “consistently” exceeded legal EU limits in the three years before her death, said PA.
“If we want a healthy generation to come into the world, we will have to clean up our environment,” Holgate told a newsletter after the inquest.
He said the health and medical professions need to start “getting to grips with some of these problems,” like they had with smoking.
“Our hearts go out to Ella’s family who have struggled tirelessly for today’s milestone,” said Sarah Woolnough, CEO of Asthma UK and the British Lung Foundation.
“Ella’s legacy has clearly highlighted the invisible dangers of inhaling dirty air,” especially for people with asthma or lung disease, she said, criticizing “inadequate air quality laws and policies.”
“Today’s verdict sets the precedent for a seismic shift in the pace and extent to which the government, local authorities and clinicians now need to work together to address the country’s air pollution health crisis,” she added.
A UK government spokesman said, “Our thoughts remain with Ella’s family and friends.”
The spokesman said the government was delivering a £ 3.8 billion plan to clean up transportation, tackle NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) pollution, and move on to protect communities from air pollution, and to ” set ambitious new air quality objectives “.