New air pollution proposals ‘too weak’ when lives at stake, says Ella Kissi-Debrah’s mother

New proposals for air pollution are too “weak” when people’s lives are at stake, the mother of a nine-year-old girl whose death was linked to toxic air has said.

The mother of Ella Kissi-Debrah, the first person in the UK to have air pollution on their death certificate, told The Independent she was “incredibly disappointed” by the government’s plans to toughen up legal limits by 2040, saying this was too far in the future.

“The whole thing about this is to save lives, so children won’t continue to die,” Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, now a clean air campaigner, said.

Ella, who lived in Lewisham in south London, died nine years ago from an asthma attack. In 2020, a coroner ruled excessive exposure to air pollution contributed to her death in a landmark inquest.

In spring last year, the coroner said the UK needed to bring its “far higher” threshold for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) – a type of air pollutant – in line with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) to reduce the number of air pollution deaths.

The government has now proposed matching these levels by 2040 in a consultation published on Wednesday.

But speaking about this target, Ms Kissi-Debrah said: “It’s too weak.”

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The campaigner said she was frustrated it centred around a target the WHO introduced in 2005, but which the UK government was aiming to reach 35 years after this date.

“We have moved on from 2005 targets. The WHO realised they were not even strong enough because 7 million people still continue to die,” Ms Kissi-Debrah said.

This is how many people the global health body estimate are killed every year around the world by air pollution, which is linked to lung cancer, heart disease, chronic respiratory and autoimmune diseases, among other health issues.

The WHO made their air quality guidelines stricter in autumn last year, several months after the coroner in Ella’s inquest recommended the UK match their threshold.

The UK government proposals stick to the old guidelines, saying they want this to be the maximum annual mean concerntration of PM2.5 in the air by 2050.

“It is incredibly disappointing because children continue to die,” Ms Rosamund Kissi-Debrah said.

“We are so distracted by everything else. But without our health, we have nothing.”

Jocelyn Cockburn, a lawyer who led the inquest into Ella’s death, said the coroner’s ruling and report underlined “the need for immediate action to save lives”.

“The inquest in 2020 demonstrated the lethal toll air pollution has on human health; the scientific and medical evidence presented by a number of experts was clear,” she said.

“It is deeply disappointing and concerning for all vulnerable people in our communities that the government is showing so little ambition in its current proposals.”

Ms Kissi-Debrah has previously criticised the government’s decision to launch a public consultation on tougher air pollution limits instead of passing them into law last year. “I just think a consultation now is kicking it into the long grass,” she told The Independent in an interview last month.

The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs said its consultation focused on stretching but deliverable targets. It said its evidence showed the WHO’s new guidelines for PM2.5 – which are 5 µg/m3 – were not possible for many parts of England due to natural levels and pollution blown in from outside the country.

It proposed targets on PM2.5 are a maximum annual mean concentration of 10 µg/m3 across England by 2040 and a 35 per cent drop in population exposure by the same date compared to 2018.