People Living In Polluted Cities May Be At Higher Risk From COVID-19

Despite reports of cleaner air due to a strong decrease in transports, a long-tradition of pollution may have intensified the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in certain areas, the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) warned on Monday. Experts are still examining the correlation, but are considering the hypothesis that some conditions can make the effects of the virus worse.

For instance, doctors are linking hypertension, diabetes and respiratory diseases (all possibly caused by air pollution) to higher mortality rate for COVID-19.

“Patients with chronic lung and heart conditions caused or worsened by long-term exposure to air pollution are less able to fight off lung infections and more likely to die,” said Sara De Matteis, associate professor in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Cagliari University and member of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Environmental Health Committee, which is part of EPHA. “By lowering air pollution levels, we can help the most vulnerable in their fight against this and any possible future pandemics.’’

De Matteis also added: “Certainly the most polluting centers are also the most densely populated ones and this factor at the moment seems the most important for contagion, as shown by the fact that social distancing prevents it.”

Indeed, a 2003 study on victims of the coronavirus SARS found that 84% were previously exposed to moderate air pollution levels.

As for Europe, air pollution leads to about 400,000 early deaths annually. One of the most affected areas is the Po Valley in Northern Italy, where COVID-19’s outbreak was detected in February.

Now that both satellite images and official monitoring stations have shown a drop in NO2 pollution, the damage is already there for people’s health.

“Governments should have tackled chronic air pollution long ago, but have prioritised the economy over health by going soft on the auto industry,” EPHA’s acting secretary general Sascha Marschang said. “Once this crisis is over, policymakers should speed up measures to get dirty vehicles off our roads. Science tells us that epidemics like Covid-19 will occur with increasing frequency. So cleaning up the streets is a basic investment for a healthier future.”

Scientists are also looking at whether toxic particulate itself has been acting as a carrier for the virus. Another study from Società Italiana Medicina Ambientale, together with Università di Bologna and Università di Bari, which has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, is looking at the possible correlation between the presence of particulate and the disease’s outbreak in the Po Valley.

“Analyses seem to show that, in relation to the period 10-29 February, high concentrations above the PM10 limit in some provinces of Northern Italy may have exerted an action of boost, i.e. of the impulse to the virulent spread of the epidemic in Po Valley which has not been observed in other areas of Italy where there were cases of contagion,” the paper reads.

Researchers concluded that “the increasing rate of contagion cases in some areas of northern Italy could be linked to the conditions of airborne particle matter pollution that exerted as a carrier and as a booster”.

All these hypotheses are now being studied, but more actions are recommended to prevent a similar situation from happening again in the future.

“The COVID-19 made the invisible visible and caused massive damage as regards human health: we cannot afford remaining unprepared for the next epidemic and if something is an urgent incentive than the coronavirus epidemic is definitely one to take and tackle air pollution seriously,” Zoltán Massay-Kosubek, policy manager at EPHA, said.

Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus