Professor Stephen Holgate has likened Ella's death to that of the canaries taken down coal-mines to give early warning of toxic air. It seems a doubly appropriate comparison. Firstly, because before her lung capacity was destroyed, Ella was a lively, musical child; secondly, because what has now been legally recorded as a contribution to her death is an invisible killer - or rather a combination of killers contained in the air along our busiest roads.
It has taken the persistence of a professional, a former head teacher, in the shape of her mother to achieve this landmark ruling. Who knows how many other children have perished or been marked for life through being brought up alongside such roads as London's South Circular? It is to be hoped that government will look again at its road transport policy in view of the finding. Certainly local government, which is first in the line of fire over permitting pollution levels over legal limits, will have to act.
There must have been some complacency when the atmosphere cleared after the post-war Clean Air Acts became law. However, the visible components of coal-burning, the soot and sulphur, were replaced as motor traffic increased by invisible nitrogen oxides and microscopic particles. It was depressing to hear the Leader of the Commons yesterday trying to shift the blame for road pollution to a previous government's positive discrimination in favour of diesel engines over petrol. Admittedly, that was a silly policy in an area where the market could safely be left to decide, but the fact is that all IC and CI engines emit the gases and particles in question and diesel has cleaned up its act in recent years. Petrol and diesel are both guilty and while they may not create a huge hazard on the open road, the cumulative effect in builit-up aress, or where temperature inversion is a feature, is now shown to be toxic. Even electric vehicles are not entirely blameless as some of the dangerous particles are abraded from tyres and braking. One trusts that research will eliminate even this minor contribution to pollution.
While on the subject of asthma, my mind turns to the sad loss earlier this year of much-loved party colleague, Jacqui Gasson. The last communication of hers on Facebook was a desperate plea for information about the availability of the drug she needed to control her condition. Most of us sufferers find that the standard combination of beclamethasone to damp down the inflammation of the airways and salbutamol to relieve the symptoms when they occur are sufficient. However, there are those for whom those do not work and who need more specialised treatment. The import of drugs has become more constrained in the last year or so for a variety of reasons, but Brexit has been an aggravating factor in recent months and is likely to loom large as the EU withdrawal date passes. The treatment of a large number of chronic conditions depends on a regular supply of drugs virtually all of which are manufactured outside the UK. It is worrying that the UK Health minister seems not to be concerned. Questioned in the House yesterday, he seemed to be satisfied that Covid-19 vaccine supplies were guaranteed and no more.
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