Deadly impact of pollution on Black families in South London
Black pregnant women in South London have a higher risk of stillborn births as they are disproportionately more likely to breathe detrimental levels of air pollution.
Pollution exposure also makes it more likely to give birth to premature or underweight babies and increases maternal depressive symptoms.
The daughter of Agnes Agyepong, a Lewisham mother-of-three and founder of Global Black Maternal Health, was hospitalised with community acquired pneumonia at four-years-old.
“Nobody had listened to me,” Agyepong said as countless trips to the doctors about her daughter’s coughing and runny nose only resulted in allergen tests.
“By the third time she went into hospital… her school had to call me as she was slumped over in the sports hall while all the children were playing. She had no energy.”
It was at this point that Agyepong made the link with the death of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah’s from a fatal asthma attack in Lewisham.
Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah 2004-2013, Source: Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah
Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah 2004-2013, Source: Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah
Like Agyepong's daughter, Adoo-Kissi-Debrah was continually tested with no mention of air pollution, having acquired a chest infection at seven years old.
She died age nine.
Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah was the first person worldwide to have air pollution listed as a cause of death on her death certificate, as attributed in Southwark’s Coroner’s Court.
“Their lives are being put at risk just because they want to go to school…. I realised this story is now not just about Ella. It’s become a lot bigger than that now,” Agyepong said.
Both Ella’s death and her daughter’s story inspired Agnes Agyepong to create the first study with Impact on Urban Health, to understand the attitudes and behaviour of Black mothers in understanding air pollution.
3 POLLUTANTS RESPONSIBLE FOR AIR QUALITY
Source: photographer695
Source: photographer695
NO2
Nitrogen Dioxide is found in areas with vehicle traffic. It affects organ and neurodevelopment during pregnancy, adult lung decline and is linked with new onset asthma in children.
Source: Roberta Taylor
Source: Roberta Taylor
PM10
Particulate matter larger than PM2.5 which also come from the built environment. These affect lung development during pregnancy and early childhood, adult lung decline and chronic inflammation.
Agyepong and Adoo-Kissi-Debrah are not the only families facing the disproportionate impact of air pollution on their health. South London Resident Celeste Smith, who had her first child in January 2021, also shared her story.
Celeste's Story:
“I live on top of a traffic light junction, so battle with both air and noise pollution daily. We've lived here for the past 5 years. I was pregnant in 2020 during the pandemic (which had the effect of obviously reducing the amount of traffic and noise in the area) and had my first child in Jan 2021. The respite of reduced cars on the road and at the traffic junction made me feel a bit safer during my pregnancy, but it has always been a concern for my little girl that she is growing up above a traffic light, where cars are constantly stopping and passing. On top of this, the walk to the nursery is down a busy road, and the nursery itself is on a main road. It feels like there is no escape. We have tried selling, but because we live in a flat, there have been impacts on the value of the property since the cladding crisis, meaning we are economically trapped in what we know to be an unhealthy environment. It is not how I wanted my little girl to begin life. And with the cost-of-living crisis and recession setting in, I can't see the situation changing any time soon.”
Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham are amongst the boroughs which emit significantly more than the WHO guidance for levels of three key pollutants - NO2, PM2.5 and PM10 - per year.
Black people are more likely to live in economically deprived urban areas - treated as ‘sacrifice areas’ - where low cost housing is located near incinerators but far from green spaces, according to The Runnymede Trust.
A black British baby is 80% more likely to die, and an Asian British baby is 60% more likely, due to increased levels of air pollution, according to Dr Karen Joash of Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologist.
Dr Joash said: “This isn't down to socioeconomic status. The maternal mortality ratio is out of control in some urban areas, and this is down to geography and the air pollution these communities of black women breathe in daily.”
So-called ‘fetal programming’ occurs as perinatal exposure to pollution causes persistent metabolic and physiological changes in the fetus through genetic profiles, Dr Joash explains. Children then have a higher risk of dying or having chronic health issues like cardiovascular disease or asthma.
According to London Air, 9,400 premature deaths across all ages in London are due to long-term exposure of air pollution.
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