On 15 February 2013, nine-year old Ella Kissi-Debrah died in the UK following a severe asthma attack. Due to the severity of her asthma, she was especially vulnerable to the high levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter pollution from traffic emissions. This case is just one example of how the UK government’s inaction in tackling environmental issues disproportionately affects minority communities – with Black communities facing the worst levels of air pollution. In fact, the current levels of air pollution in the UK amounts to a public health emergency and yet, authorities move at glacial pace in their efforts to tackle this issue. 

AIR POLLUTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM 

Ella Kissi-Debrah was admitted to hospital 27 times in the course of her short life, due to multiple seizures resulting from severe asthma. Her condition deteriorated so badly that she was classified as a person with disabilities. Her mother explained that, “when Ella was rushed into hospital, a lot of the time she was barely breathing... it was an emergency, cardiac arrest”. The coroner’s verdict stated that the levels of NO2 near South Circular Road in Lewisham, London, where Ella lived, far exceeded World Health Organisation guidelines. Prof Stephen Holgate, an immunopharmacologist and respiratory physician at the Southampton general hospital, expressed the view that the cumulative effect of the toxic air Ella was breathing due to living within 30 metres of the South Circular road caused her final asthma attack. The combination of failing to reduce the levels of nitrogen dioxide and a distinct lack of information given to Ella’s mother, proved to have dire consequences. Ella’s family believe that the state failed to take steps to protect the public from dangerous levels of air pollution, which amounted to “a violation of article 2 of the Human Rights Act, concerning the right to life”.

Ella’s story reflects something bigger: environmental racism. It is no coincidence that this young Black girl’s death happened under such circumstances. In fact, the worst levels of air pollution are experienced by people living in the most deprived areas in the UK. Black communities disproportionately breathe in illegally high levels of polluted air. Specifically, we see that Black, African, and Caribbean people account for 15.3% of all Londoners exposed to dangerously high levels of NO2 and yet, this demographic only accounts for 13.3% of the city’s overall population. This means that the average Black-British person in the UK person is 28% more exposed to harmful pollutants per cubic metre than their white counterparts. Clearly, fighting for clean air is not only an environmental issue but a racial justice issue as well.

THE EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTION AND UK GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE  

Air pollution disproportionately affects children. Young people are especially vulnerable due to their lungs not being fully developed. The World Health Organisation states that air pollution can impact a child’s neurodevelopment and cognitive ability, trigger asthma, and childhood cancer. In the UK, air pollution is estimated to cause 29,000 deaths each year and is expected to reduce life expectancy by six months on average, at a cost of around £16 billion per year. This makes the UK government’s lack of substantial action against this issue unacceptable.  

During the inquest into Ella’s death, Professor Holgate condemned the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department of Health and Social Care for their failure to coordinate action on this issue. As the author behind the inquest, he found that there were unlawful levels of pollution, which contributed to Ella’s fatal asthma attack.

Since then, the government has acknowledged the time-sensitive necessity of improving Britain's air quality. DEFRA and the Department of Transport issued an Air quality plan for nitrogen dioxide in 2017, and in 2019 issued a Clean Air Strategy. Both documents require the government to deal with the issue of air pollution at its source, namely vehicle emissions. The 2019 Clean Air Strategy explains the steps which the government is taking, including: a commitment to invest over £3.5 billion in air quality and cleaner transport and ending the sale of new conventional petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040. The government also committed to introducing new legislation which will compel manufacturers to recall vehicles for any failures in their emissions control system, thus ensuring effective action against any tampering with vehicle emissions control systems. These steps are headed in the right direction and are undoubtedly a result of relentless campaigning by Ella’s mother, Ms Adoo-Kissi-Debrah.

Fighting for environmental rights is a collective right and ethical imperative, with implications not only for the current generation but also future generations across the world. Poor or rich, countries have to face up to the air pollution crisis. To ignore the dwindling health of our environment is to ignore the rates of cancer, heart disease, asthma, birth defects, behavioral disorders, and infertility all of which are caused or exacerbated by environmental hazards. With 86% of the UK’s  children being affected by air pollution every day, Ella’s story is not a one off event but that of a “canary in the coal mine”.

Aminah is a recent graduate with a degree in Law & Politics from the University of Kent. She is hoping to pursue an LLM in Human Rights Law next year. Currently, She is interning at the United Nations working on developing maps to help FGM activists in Tanzania. She is also helping her local community by volunteering at the Citizens Advice Bureau. With a passion for Human Rights, she would like to spend her professional career fighting for the rights of vulnerable people.

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