Ros Adoothe mother of the girl whose death certificate – the only one in the world – cites Pollution as an aggravator of asthma that he suffered, tries to convince governments and institutions of danger of air pollution for public health. “I talk about health, others about the economy,” he adds.
Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah He is a Londoner through and through. Born in the north and resident in the south, she has drawn in her thoughts the geographical and mental line with which the River Thames divides the city. He sets the date at a coffee shop near his house, in the southeast, also near the urban highway that is the origin of his public profile. The turban on his head and the strident color of his clothing refer to his Ghanaian origins. His speech is well prepared, perhaps because he has been dealing with the same topic for more than a decade. Their first daughter, Ella Roberta, died in February 2013 at the age of nine from an asthma attack.a disease that had developed in the previous two years. The official cause of death: respiratory failure, a generic term that angered Ross.
The emotional turbulence caused by a dead daughter catapulted her to explore medical concepts. Respiratory failure aggravated by “something” in the air innocent Ella breathed; They lived twenty-five meters from the highway, and a half-hour a day walk between home and school. The “something” that killed Ella wouldn’t let Ross sleep. “I don’t like being described as a fighter, because it is associated with a warrior with whom I don’t identify, I try to persuade the Government and the institutions with powers so that we can all breathe clean air“, that’s how it is defined.
The task that Ross set for himself: change the cause of death on Ella’s death certificate; a specific reason instead of the generic respiratory failure. The objective was unprecedented in the United Kingdom. Neither does his determination. “To overturn the official verdict we had to provide new and convincing medical and scientific evidence, and this meant trials in which there was no jurisprudence; On the one hand, we had samples of Ella’s body that we kept at Great Ormond Street Hospital; and on the other hand, the levels of air pollution in the area that, at that time, began to be monitored; It took us more than seven years; In December 2020 we got the verdict and In 2021 the death certificate was changed including that Ella was undergoing excessive air pollutionjust as the document has been left,” explains Ross, kind and talkative, next to the cup that gets cold because he forgets that it is in front of him due to the emphasis he places on his story.
The change in Ella Roberta’s death certificate was described as “historical milestone” by the medical and political authorities of the United Kingdom. But for Ross it was not the end of the road, but the first stop on the journey to which he dedicates part of his life. He was entering the phase of suing the British Government for Ella’s death and asking for compensation for it. Compensation has recently arrived with an unpublished amount for the Ella Roberta Foundation, dedicated to campaigns against polluted air. “Dirty air not only harms minors, 30% of lung cancers in non-smokers, and other diseases, are attributed to polluted air, to which older people are vulnerable; I talk about public health and why In some Scandinavian countries the death figures are different than, for example, in India or in a certain neighborhood of London, I try to demonstrate with scientific evidence that air pollution is an emergency and must be treated as such; “We have to give it priority,” says Ross with all kinds of data and cases.
The activist has admiration for the work of the Spanish María Neiradirector of Environment, Climate Change and Health at the World Health Organization (UN). Although the scope of action of the Londoner and her NGO extends from London City Hall to the UN, her daughter’s case frequently transpires in her explanations. About the two years before Ella’s death, Ella says the following: “My daughter did not have respiratory problems until October 2010, then she started with a cough that I attributed to a virus, which is usually the majority cause, but we entered a spiral. of hospital stays for a hard, strong cough like that of smokers, I had to quit my job as a teacher to take care of her,” she explains, adding that “70% of cases that arrive at hospital emergencies are due to respiratory problems“.
Leaving teaching and seeing her daughter deteriorate to the point of death from an asthma attack gave her the determination that she would be the last one to go through the experience. Her other children, twins, were five years old when Ella died. Today they are teenagers who support her in her campaigns. “My daughter’s death cannot be in vain. For now, we have managed to monitor air quality and we need many other political measures to breathe clean air,” says the activist, satisfied with the size of her Ella Roberta Foundation, an organization that she defines as “small and modest, but enough to be controlled by me and the five trustees or employers who without remuneration, voluntarily, direct and supervise the small charitable entity”.
On the Ella Roberta Foundation website, Ross states: “We believe in a world where everyone can breathe air without toxic pollutionregardless of where they live, their economic position or their ethnic background.” Regarding this statement I ask: do you fall short of saying that breathing is a human right that should be included in the UN Charter or in the constitutions? Ross answer: “We will have to change the declaration, since breathing clean air is a human right like access to clean water, or it should be.
Ross’s activity in favor of clean air to breathe has led her to meet not only the Spanish woman who heads the World Health Organization, but also the politicians in power in the United Kingdom. Regarding the change of Government, since last July, he says that “we must give everyone a chance, it is still too early, but the Labor Party was aware of the matter when they were in the opposition, those who have cast a shadow (spokespersons) in the opposition They come more prepared on a topic; the previous ones were also informed because they had been in office for a long time. I believe that clean air should not be a political party issue.“. Ross has been an unelected Green Party candidate for the House of Commons on two occasions. Due to the electoral system, only one candidate is elected for each electoral district.
If the Labor Government is in a trial phase, the same is true, according to Ross, of Greater China, “All kinds of things happen there regarding the environment and the impurities in the air they breathe.“. Although the choice of donald trump As president of the United States, he does not predict the best times for the green agenda in the world, Ross, who, as the English say, tries to see his grass greener than his neighbor’s, points out that “when they remind Trump that a million Americans died from covid-19, perhaps the issues of public health and air pollution are taken seriously, which, by the way, in the latest research is also linked to autism, they send me articles of all kinds and this is one; one of the last ones to arrive”. And with room to eat, before others come for a meeting at the café, Ross finds a larger table and says goodbye.
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