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The girl lived a stone’s throw from one of London’s busiest roads. Forensic scientists have now concluded the cause of death seven years after death.
Nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah was affected by countless asthma attacks and had nearly 30 hospital visits in a three-year period before finally dying in February 2013.
A 2014 forensic examination concluded that acute respiratory failure was the cause of death. A new forensic examination six years later has ignored the old cause of death. The reason is that new evidence has emerged showing that the girl lived in an area with very high levels of air pollution.
Also read: 417,000 Europeans die prematurely due to air pollution
Cause of death
A two-week forensic review in a British court, a so-called “Forensic Court” which is responsible for investigating the cause and circumstances of someone’s death, now concluded that air pollution was one of the contributing causes of death. her.
“I conclude that Ella died of asthma with exposure to extreme air pollution as a contributing cause,” said forensic scientist Philip Barlow, according to Sky News.
“I intend to record cause of death as 1a) acute respiratory failure, 1b) severe asthma, and 1c) exposure to air pollution,” Barlow said.
Also Read: Burning Wood In Home Office Harms Air Quality
Therefore, Ella is believed to be the first person in the world to be listed with air pollution as a cause of death, CNN reports.
The girl lived in Lewisham, in south-east London, just 25 meters from South Circular Road, which is one of the busiest roads in the metropolis.
Here you can check the air quality in Norwegian cities.
It is believed to be the first in the world
The Asthma UK and British Lung Foundation organizations claim that She is the first person in the history of the world to have air pollution declared as the official cause of death.
She suffered from severe asthma that caused several cases of cardiac and respiratory arrest.
Ella’s mother, Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, was unaware of the risk that air pollution could trigger seizures and worsen her daughter’s asthma condition while Ella was still alive.
“I knew about the escape, but nothing else,” the mother said in a statement, according to The Guardian.
Forensic pathologist Barlow stated that Ella’s mother never received enough information about the health risks of air pollution and how it can make the health situation of asthmatics worse.
– Had he received this information, he could have acted in a direction that could have prevented Ella’s death, said the forensic pathologist.
“During her (Ella editor’s) illness from 2010 to 2013, she was exposed to levels of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter that exceeded the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines,” Barlow said.
“The main source of exposure was traffic emissions,” Barlow said.
Also read: Air pollution can reduce the lives of the world’s citizens by almost two years
– A public health crisis for our children
London Mayor Sadiq Khan describes the ruling as a milestone.
“Toxic air pollution is a public health crisis, especially for our children,” Khani said in a statement this week.
“Today should be a turning point, so that other families do not have to suffer the same heartbreaking fate as Ella’s family,” he said.
A 2018 report, prepared by Professor Stephen Holgate of the University of Southampton, identified extremely high levels of air pollution in the area where Ella lived.
The Catford gauging station, which was just over a kilometer from Ella’s home, recorded levels “consistently” higher than the EU-approved levels during the three-year period before Ella died, according to the agency. news PA.
– If we want a healthy generation in this world, then we have to clean up our environment, Professor Holgate said at a press conference after the forensic review.
Deaths and pollution
A report published in the medical journal The Lancet in 2017 states that nine million deaths worldwide in 2015 are related to pollution. The report “The Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health” is a collaboration between The Lancet, the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP) and the Icahn School of Medicine.
The biggest risk factor is air pollution, which contributed to 6.5 million premature deaths worldwide in 2015.
According to the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, 2,265 deaths in Norway in 2015 could be related to pollution. This corresponds to 5.47% of all deaths in Norway (41,383 deaths) in 2015.
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