News / Clean Air For Kids
Bristol campaigner takes her call for clean air for kids to the UN
An advocate for cleaner air inside schools is bringing her campaign from Bristol to the United Nations.
On Tuesday, Ruth Brooker will be taking part in an event at the UN headquarters in New York coinciding with the UN’s general assembly.
Brooker will be joining other advocates from across the world to highlight the critical importance of healthy indoor air.
Brooker’s campaign, Clean Air For Kids, started when her son Joshua was diagnosed with leukaemia and she wanted to ensure that when he returned to school, he could be in the healthiest possible environment.
Her aims are simple: if an air filter is installed in each classroom and windows are opened regularly, we could significantly reduce the number of coughs, colds and infections that kids catch at school, as well as improving pupils’ concentration.
“It’s a case of just making things as simple as you can,” said Brooker on a recent morning in St Andrew’s Park, a short walk away from her home.
In New York, she will join global leaders, policymakers, scientists and health experts aiming to showcase best practices and scientific innovation.
A Global Pledge for Healthy Indoor Air will also become the first international effort to formally recognise clean indoor air as essential to health and wellbeing.
“I’m totally an accidental and unexpectedly passionate advocate,” said Ruth, a former journalist.
“I did not see myself in this position… but then suddenly you get these very personal circumstances.”
Brooker credits Dan Simson, the former headteacher at Sefton Park, for being an indispensable ally in the early days of her campaigning journey, but admits that schools can often be difficult places in which to instigate change without committed supporters, even for something as simple as occasionally opening a classroom window.
“My favourite analogy for people who don’t really understand what I’m talking about is to say, look, you can go without food for three weeks, you can go without water for probably about three days but you can’t not breathe…
“It’s really hard to get people to care. It’s not sexy is it when you start wittering on about windows and ventilation but it is so important because we all have to breathe.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
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