Rosamund Kissi-Debrah outside the court after the coroner’s ruling. Photograph: Kirsty O’Connor/PA
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The coroner said the failure to reduce pollution levels to legal limits possibly contributed to her death, as did the failure to provide her mother with information about the potential for air pollution to exacerbate asthma.
“Ella died of asthma contributed to by exposure to excessive air pollution,” said the coroner on Wednesday.
He said that during Ella’s life, nitrogen dioxide emissions in Lewisham, where she lived, exceeded legal limits, both EU and national levels.
Particulate matter levels were above the WHO guidelines, he said.
“The whole of Ella’s life was lived in close proximity to highly polluting roads. I have no difficulty in concluding that her personal exposure to nitrogen dioxide and PM was very high.”
The coroner said the health effects of air pollution had been known for many years, and children and those with asthma were particularly at risk.
He found that air pollution both induced and exacerbated Ella’s particular form of severe asthma.
The ruling is the first of its kind in the UK and is likely to increase pressure on the government to tackle illegal levels of air pollution across the country.
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