I like to think of my daughter when she wasn’t ill, before she developed asthma. I look at photos taken of her by the teachers at her preschool, and I remember how much she loved to play.
Ella grew up fit and healthy, sporty and clever. She didn’t actually become ill until just before her seventh birthday, and she died of a fatal asthma attack just after her ninth. In the two and a bit intervening years, she had over 30 emergency hospital admissions.
At an inquest, it was found that air pollution contributed to Ella’s asthma and made it worse. She is the first person in the world to have air pollution on her death certificate, but she is definitely not the only one to be hugely affected by it.
I think Ella’s illness must have started before it became obvious. Perhaps on those journeys to preschool, when she was breathing the filthy air. The younger you are, the more vulnerable you are. Children breathe more deeply and more frequently than adults. They are smaller, so closer to the source of so much air pollution, car exhausts.
As an early years professional, what can you do to keep your children safe? I was a teacher, and I kept a lot of asthma pumps and spacers. This is a good opportunity to check the medicine is in date and each child has an asthma action plan. Often at inquests, we find out the basics are not adhered to, so an asthma plan is crucial.
But the issue isn’t just asthma, it’s air pollution, which can cause asthma but also stunt the growth of children’s lungs, cause cancer and affect mental development. It is on us, as teachers, to educate and empower people. We need to ensure parents know the impact air pollution has on their children. Not to scare them, but to give them the ability to make important decisions.
- Ask your council for a pollution monitor for your place of work.
- Encourage people not to drive. You breathe more air pollution in your car than walking.
- If parents do drive, ask them not to idle. It produces 50 per cent more air pollution than driving.
- Walk along less busy roads as they will be less polluted.
Recent research shows that 97 per cent of us live in places exposed to levels of air pollution higher than those the World Health Organization recommends. This needs to change. Some things we can do as individuals, but much of it needs to come from policy-makers. We need them to act, to ensure there are no more deaths like Ella’s.
- More information on asthma action plans is available here