Nursery World - Rosamund Adoo Kissi Debrah: Act now for cleaner air

Air pollution can cause asthma and other potentially fatal conditions, but many parents are not aware of their children’s exposure to it, says Rosamund Adoo Kissi Debrah, WHO BreatheLife ambassador and founder of the Ella Roberta Family Foundation

Rosamund Adoo Kissi Debrah: 'We need to ensure parents know the impact air pollution has on their children'

I like to think of my daughter when she wasn’t ill, before she developed asthma. I look at photos taken of her by the teachers at her preschool, and I remember how much she loved to play.

Ella grew up fit and healthy, sporty and clever. She didn’t actually become ill until just before her seventh birthday, and she died of a fatal asthma attack just after her ninth. In the two and a bit intervening years, she had over 30 emergency hospital admissions.

At an inquest, it was found that air pollution contributed to Ella’s asthma and made it worse. She is the first person in the world to have air pollution on her death certificate, but she is definitely not the only one to be hugely affected by it.

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