When she was just nine years old, Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah suffered a fatal asthma attack on 15 February 2013.
By 2020, air pollution was cited as a contributing factor to the death of the UK's first individual.
Rosamund, who is the mother of Ella, has been advocating for a new inquest for a long time since she believed that the air contamination caused by the abundant road traffic in Lewisham, southeast London, had contributed to the issue.
The new inquest backed up Rosamund's suppositions, determining that nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels had surpassed both European Union and British standards. Additionally, it decided that the amount of harmful particulate matter present in the atmosphere (PM2.5 and PM10) had exceeded World Health Organization (WHO) directives.
Deputy Coroner Philip Barlow determined that "air pollution was a major contributing element to both the onset and aggravation of her asthma", noting that "the failure to reduce air pollution concentrations leads to avoidable fatalities".
He attributed the lack of knowledge on this invisible killer to the absence of air quality monitors.
What developments have occurred since then, and how has air pollution monitoring technology advanced?
Defra has reported a rise in the number of air pollution monitoring sites across the UK, from 424 in 2020 to 555 now.
Some or all of the most hazardous pollutants can be measured, including NO2, SO2, O3, CO, NO, and PM2.5 and PM10.
The last two kinds are comprised of small airborne particles produced by car exhausts, brake pads, tire wear, burning, and industrial activities.
Through its monitoring networks, Defra generates daily air quality forecasts which are accessible on the UK-Air website.
Although public air quality systems have seen limited progress in the last 30 years, Alastair Lewis, a professor at York University's National Centre for Atmospheric Studies, and chair of the independent advisory Air Quality Expert Group, has aired his concerns.
He states that measurement networks for certain pollutants exist, but not for others. As an example, gauging the amount of PM2.5 is relatively inexpensive, yet to identify the components – such as chemicals from adhesives or paints – an apparatus that costs roughly £100,000 is required.
"Currently, it is comparable to attempting to evaluate how various foods impact the body simply by measuring the overall amount of calories consumed."
Only a small number of top-notch monitoring stations in the UK can recognize the elements of PM2.5, Prof Lewis adds, even though this pollutant is the one that causes "the most economic havoc to health when it comes to the population at large."
He stresses that air pollution has an economic as well as a social cost. He cited figures from Defra indicating that treating sick people costs between £5bn and £15bn annually.
In response, Defra has declared an investment of more than £10m to increase the size of the PM2.5 monitoring system by at least twofold. According to Defra, this shall enable them to come up with more policy protocols to control PM2.5 and to achieve the ambitious targets which have been set in the Environment Act.
According to Sarah Woolnough, the chief executive of Asthma + Lung UK, precise and real-time information from monitoring equipment is vital for those with lung issues as it permits them to modify their daily habits, for example, selecting an alternate route for their walk or going out at a different time to avoid areas with high air contamination and thus, safeguard their wellbeing.
She believes that the quality of air pollution monitoring varies considerably from region to region and it should be "more extensive, uniform and even-handed".
Ms Woolnough states that the government must collaborate with all local authorities and make sure that all locations, such as cities, areas with high pollution levels as well as spots visited by groups in need of extra protection, including schools, hospitals and care homes, are equipped with sensors.
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Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, is at the centre of a debate regarding the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) to encompass all boroughs within Greater London.
He has justified the decision, saying that five million Londoners will have fresher air to breathe and that London has now created a wide-reaching air quality tracking system.
A spokesperson from the Mayor's office has commented that air pollution is of paramount importance to him and he is taking all necessary steps to enhance London's air quality and resilience to environmental change.
The metropolis of London boasts one of the most extensive pollution tracking systems of any city in the world. Hundreds of high-accuracy monitors installed by the boroughs keep an eye on one, a few, or all of the following contaminants: NO2, PM10, PM2.5, and ozone. Further, there are around 1,700 NO2 diffusion tubes that offer monthly mean values.
The Mayor has launched the Breathe London network in conjunction with the Environmental Research Group at Imperial College London and local community groups, with assistance from US tech company Clarity in the form of 350 sensors.
Critics of Ulez contend that the level of NO2 and other pollutants has considerably dropped in the last decade, implying that its expansion is unnecessary. They claim this has chiefly been due to the EU legislation which has compelled automobile companies, power plants, and heavy industry to eliminate hazardous substances at the source.
Clean air activists contend that even a small amelioration in air quality may lead to lives being saved.
The positive aspect is that artificial intelligence software programs are continuously assisting in the evaluation of the available data sets - including traffic concentration, climate, time of the day, contamination levels, etc. This is resulting in more precise models that take out the effects of wind, heat, and sunlight on contamination readings.
Prof Lewis says that AI is enabling us to find out which of the expensive air quality policies are the most effective, which makes it critical.
It's clear to Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, a campaigner via the Ella Roberta Foundation (set up in honor of her daughter), that despite emissions decreasing and tech progressing, it is necessary for a shift in attitudes and behaviors to create a true impact.
It is necessary for us to reduce the amount of driving we do, and to keep those distances shorter; however, this will only be possible with the availability of affordable, secure, dependable public transportation options.
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