The Tragedy of Air Pollution -- and an Urgent Demand for Clean Air | Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah |TED

I’d like to dedicate this talk to my three children:

Phi, Mack

and Ella Roberta.

(Inhales)

If I stop breathing for two minutes,

I would die.

It is the simplest thing that all of us do unconsciously

about 20,000 times a day.

So normal

that we forget that breathing is the essence of life.

My daughter, Ella Roberta,

stopped breathing frequently

and was resuscitated numerous times by me at home

and in hospital by her doctors,

until suddenly, on the 15th of February,

three weeks after her ninth birthday,

she took her final breath.

Ella was a healthy, clever, sporty and funny girl.

She had a lot of musical ability.

At the time of her passing,

she already played a dozen instruments.

She was exceptionally good at football,

cycling, skating, swimming and dancing.

Ella was a great writer,

and she was also pretty good at art.

At the time of her passing,

she had a reading age of 15 years.

When she was six,

the simple act of breathing became the biggest challenge of her life.

I rushed Ella to hospital 28 times in 28 months

when she suddenly began suffering severe respiratory issues.

She was diagnosed with life-threatening asthma

at the age of seven.

She was admitted into intensive care five times

and put in an induced coma to save her life

when her lungs gave up on her.

It wasn't until after the first coroner's inquest

in September 2014

that I learned that her possible trigger of her sudden illness

was to do with "something in the air."

But at that time, we did not know what it was.

Ella had one of the worst cases ever of asthma

recorded in the United Kingdom,

according to the pathologist who carried out her postmortem.

We as a family, we live 25 meters from the South Circular

in southeast London.

It is one of the busiest roads in the UK.

I later learned that air pollution around our home

was persistently far above the levels deemed acceptable by the WHO.

On every walk to school, every bike ride,

every time Ella went outside,

her body was absorbing invisible, toxic air

spewed out by petrol and diesel vehicles.

A second inquest into Ella’s death, just in December 2020,

the coroner, Philip Barlow,

he concluded that it was the excessive illegal levels of air pollution,

not only inducted her asthma,

but it was the highest ever on the night she died.

As a result of this,

Ella is the first person in the world

to have air pollution listed as a cause of death

on her death certificate.

Ella's story is unique, I admit,

but her experience is shockingly ordinary.

In too many countries around the world,

air pollution exceeds

what the WHO tells us is acceptable to breathe.

Fossil fuels, everyone, they're killing us.

Almost one in five premature deaths

are linked to air pollution

from combustion engines, coal power plants,

wood burning, ammonia, cooking stoves

and other fossil fuels.

That is 8.7 million people a year dying from heart attacks, cancer, strokes,

dementia, suicide, depression, stillbirths and miscarriages.

And that's just the start.

Children are the worst affected due to their lungs still developing.

Air pollution stunts the development of lungs and brains.

Scientists, believe it, are finding soot in mothers placentas,

meaning unborn babies are directly exposed to the black carbon

produced by motor traffic and fuel burning.

Like Ella, 93 percent of children around the world

are breathing unsafe air.

The real tragedy of this is we know how to solve this public health crisis.

We need to shift from toxic fossil fuels

to clean, electrified public and active transport.

The second inquest into Ella’s death made it abundantly clear:

Ella would still be here alive today

if air pollution around our home

had been within the WHO acceptable limits.

Air pollution is an invisible global pandemic.

It's a silent killer.

You know what, unless you clean up the air,

you will never resolve climate change.

Do you know why?

It's linked to global warming,

acid rain,

effects on wildlife,

depletion of the ozone layer.

But for me, this is personal.

Eight years after Ella's death,

I still visit respiratory doctors with Ella’s siblings,

who continue to be impacted by excessive air pollution.

As my children and I share a genetic link,

we are equally susceptible to air pollution.

The WHO recently strengthened its guidelines,

and the evidence shows us there is no such thing as safe levels.

Every country in the world

must enshrine these new WHO guidelines into law now.

I'm putting them on notice.

(Applause)

What do I want?

I'll tell you what I want.

I want every government to guarantee their children

the chance to live full and healthy lives.

To be able to fully and safely breathe.

Breathing clean air is every child's human right.

Governments have a duty of care to protect their citizens.

Remember, 350 million people in the world have asthma,

including me.

(Breathing through inhaler)

The fight to breathe clean air is real.

When I say "Breathe life,"

what do you say?

You say, "Clean air is our right!"

Breathe life!

Audience: Clean air is our right!

RAKD: Thank you for listening.

Thank you very much.

(Applause and cheers)

[Take action on climate change at countdown.ted.com]