Inquest considers pollution in girl's death

The family of a 9-year-old girl who died in London in 2013 after a severe asthma attack is hoping an inquest into her death will find air pollution was a factor in the tragedy, potentially opening the door to stricter emissions rules in the United Kingdom.

Ella Kissi-Debrah died after visiting hospital 27 times with breathing problems during a three-year battle with seizures.

The family lived in the London Borough of Lewisham, 25 meters from the South Circular Road, one of the capital's busiest arteries. An earlier inquest found that Ella died from acute respiratory failure after a severe asthma attack.

But High Court judges subsequently quashed that decision and ordered a new investigation and inquest following years of campaigning from Ella's mother, Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, who wanted the verdict to include mention of air pollution.

The Evening Standard newspaper reported the family's lawyer, Richard Hermer, believes Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Transport for London, and Lewisham Council will not fight the conclusion reached by experts employed by the family that air pollution contributed to the death. Hermer told the paper: "We don't know what the position of central government is; if there is a dispute as to whether or not air pollution contributed to Ella's death."

ITV News said Assistant Coroner Philip Barlow, who will lead the inquest, said he wants to establish what role air pollution may have played in Ella's death, how pollution was monitored at the time, what measures were in place to reduce it, and whether the public had been made aware of any dangers.

Experts are expected to tell the court that air pollution levels around the family home had consistently exceeded legal limits set by the European Union.

If air pollution is found to have been a factor in Ella's death, it will be the first time it has been formally blamed for a death in the UK and could have far-reaching implications for the auto industry and for the authorities.

Kissi-Debrah told Sky News: "When Ella was alive, we never knew what her triggers were. It's something, as her mum, I deeply regret. She wanted to know what was causing all these horrible attacks. We've been granted another inquest."

She said governments should take air pollution seriously "and really do something to clean up the air".

The inquest in Southwark Coroner's Court is listed under Article 2, the right to life, of the Human Rights Act, which allows scrutiny of public bodies in an individual's death.

The hearing, which began on Monday, is expected to last 10 days.