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Half a century ago, a lethal haze of smoke and fog, otherwise known as the Great Smog of 1952, covered London and killed as many as 12,000 people. More recently, in 2013, Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah died at the hands of air pollution. “[Ella] was the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as the cause of her death,” says 17-year old co-founder of the organization Choked Up and Ella’s friend, Anjali Raman-Middleton. But London’s toxic air, a longstanding problem associated with 9,000 premature deaths per year, is more than a public health and environmental issue.
“It’s also a social justice issue,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan told WRI, “with the poorest Londoners living in the areas most badly affected by toxic air.”
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By Madeleine Galvin and Anne Maassen