Almost 15,000 children aged under five were admitted to hospital with breathing difficulties caused by air pollution in London last year, according to a freedom of information request.
That is 41 every day…just in London. These are admissions of very young children whose lungs and other organs are still developing. The long-term impact on their health and quality of life is incalculable.
This is yet more evidence of the growing national health crisis caused by poor air quality, which gives added significance to an ongoing legal action being taken against the government in the High Court.
Nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah was the first person in the UK to have air pollution recognised as a factor in her death following her fatal asthma attack in 2013. Subsequently, her mother Rosamund has campaigned tirelessly both for justice for her daughter and longer-term protection for all children from the damage caused by poor air quality.
Ella’s estate is suing three government departments* for compensation over Ella's “illness and premature death” and the case is due to be heard by the High Court later this year. However, this case is not about money, but rather, as Rosamund explains, about "holding their feet to the fire" and establishing a "legal right for all children to be able to breathe clean air".
She added that "not much has happened" since the coroner in Ella’s case published a prevention of future deaths report. Currently, the government is still only committed to reducing air pollution by 2040 which condemns another whole generation of children to an uncertain future.
"It's high time we had a public health campaign about the impact of air pollution on health," said Rosamund, adding that a promise to revive the proposed new Clean Air Act was omitted from the Labour party election manifesto despite promises to the contrary.
“So far, there has been nothing from the new government on air quality.”
*The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Transport, and the Department of Health and Social Care deny that their failure to act on air pollution amounted “to a breach of human rights” and, even if it did, it would not be “causative of Ella's injuries and death”.
This does sound callous and legalistic, but the government’s lawyers are presumably alarmed by the potential for a flood of claims if the High Court rules in favour of Ella’s estate. Hence the attempt to distance government action (or inaction) from responsibility for a specific death.
BESA’s Indoor Air Quality group has been working with Rosamund for some years now. She has become a familiar figure at industry events and a captivating speaker at our annual conference and awards. She has been hugely influential in raising awareness of the role of ventilation and air filtration in improving indoor environments for health & wellbeing reasons.
However, we are making very slow progress. Yes, awareness is high, but the investment is not following. In fact, IAQ has dropped down the list of public concerns since its high point after the pandemic. As a result, many of the firms who sprang up to serve the burgeoning IAQ sector have run into financial problems.
A recent BBC report revealed that the proportion of children living in damp homes has almost doubled since the pandemic. The figure has risen from one in 14 households living in privately rented accommodation to one in seven in 2022-23, according to the English Housing Survey.
This is estimated to affect over 1.5 million children living in homes that failed decency standards, according to the survey. Living in such conditions has a serious and significant impact on childhood health with the most notorious case being that of two-year-old Awaab Ishak who died as a direct result of being exposed to mouldy conditions in his Rochdale flat.
The new government has pledged to extend the provisions of legislation known as ‘Awaab’s Law’ to the private rented sector. Currently it requires social housing landlords to take action on mould and damp within a specified timeframe, but Rosamund is adamant that we need specific legislation on air quality too.
Demands
This is needed because, while more people are now aware of the need to address IAQ, money talks and there are so many other demands on maintenance budgets. Air quality remains the world’s biggest “silent killer”, responsible for more deaths than cancer, heart disease, and mental health combined (as discussed on the latest BESA ‘Behind the Built Environment’ podcast) but unless targets are made mandatory other financial priorities will prevail.
The Building Safety Act is driving a culture change in construction and resetting the industry’s focus on the safety of ALL building users. Surely mandatory IAQ targets should be made part of this legislative push too. The clear link with respiratory illness and death confirms that air quality is a bona fide ‘safety’ issue.
Schools, hospitals, care homes, and social housing are all key areas desperate for IAQ improvements, but they are desperate for other upgrades too. So, how do we move air quality from the discretionary investment box to the essential?
So now the focus turns to the High Court. Hopefully, the weight of evidence in this landmark case will prove that Ella’s human rights were infringed – after all the coroner has already ruled that air pollution directly contributed to her death – and that by continually refusing to act the government departments are condemning thousands of other children to poor health and death.
Rosamund will be taking part in an expert panel debate about the future of air quality in social housing at this year's BESA National Conference on 17 October at the Brewery in London. Full details of the programme and registration can be found here.