The tragedy of air pollution -- and an urgent demand for clean air | Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah

TED Health

TED

Health & Fitness, Fitness, Shoshana Ungerleider, Medicine, How To Be Healthier, Ted Shoshana, Ted Talks Health

4.2 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2022

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Breathing clean air is every child's human right," says grassroots campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, while sharing the heartbreaking story of her seven-year-old daughter, Ella Roberta, whose asthma was triggered to a fatal point by air pollution. Now, Adoo-Kissi-Debrah is on a mission to raise awareness about the harmful effects of unsafe air on our health and the planet. In this moving talk, she details why governments have an urgent responsibility to take action on air pollution -- and ensure that all children have a chance to live full and healthy lives. After the talk our host Shoshana speaks with health policy expert Dr. Cara James on the necessary steps towards protecting everyone's right to a healthy environment.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective
0:08.3	This is Ted Health, I'm Dr. Shoshana Unger-Lighter.
0:11.4	Today, we're listening to a talk from Clean Air Advocate, Rosamunda-Doo Kissi Debra,
0:17.9	about the disastrous effects of air pollution around the world.
0:21.6	And after the talk, stick around from my interview with Health Policy Expert, Dr. Cara James.
0:26.9	We'll talk about how air pollution is tied in with other health inequities, and what we
0:31.0	can do to address them.
0:36.5	I'd like to dedicate this talk to my three children, Fee, Mac and Ella Roberta.
0:50.4	If I stop breathing for two minutes, I would die.
0:55.4	It is the simplest thing that all of us do unconsciously, about 20,000 times a day,
1:02.8	so normal that we forget that breathing is the essence of life.
1:08.9	My daughter, Ella Roberta, stopped breathing frequently and was resuscitated numerous times
1:16.8	by me at home and in hospital by her doctors, until suddenly, on the 15th of February,
1:26.4	three weeks after her ninth birthday, she took her final breath.
1:33.3	Ella was a healthy, clever, sporty and funny girl.
1:39.2	She had a lot of musical ability.
1:42.1	At the time of her passing, she already played a dozen instruments.
1:47.2	She was exceptionally good at football, cycling, skating, swimming and dancing.
1:54.1	Ella was a great writer, and she was also pretty good at art.
1:59.4	At the time of her passing, she had a reading age of 15 years.
2:05.5	When she was six, the simple act of breathing became the biggest challenge of her life.
2:13.3	I rushed Ella to hospital 28 times in 28 months, when she suddenly began suffering severe respiratory issues.
	...

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