There seems to be a relationship. But how solid it is and what causes it is still unclear. Several times, in the last two years, the impact of Covid-19 on the population has been linked to the degree of pollution of the place where they lived.
The hypothesis of an association between a high level of fine particles in the air and more serious consequences of the disease caused by Sars-CoV-2 was born immediately, starting from the consequences determined by the pandemic in an area characterized by a strong presence of fine dust: like the Po Valley. And it has been verified several times through epidemiological studies.
Like the last one, coordinated by the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine and published in the journal “Environmental Research”, which shows that those who live in cities where the presence of green areas is greater would run a lower risk of both becoming infected and seeing progress (in terms of hospitalizations and deaths) coronavirus infection.
Covid, the greater the smog, the more it becomes infected
by Donatella Zorzetto
The survey on 10 Italian and 8 Spanish cities
The researchers arrived at this result by relating the data relating to ten Italian cities (Rome, Milan, Florence, Genoa, Venice, Bologna, Turin, Naples, Catania and Palermo) and eight Spanish capitals (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Zaragoza). , Valencia, Seville, Las Palmas and Malaga). All centers in which, also considering the respective provinces, live over five hundred thousand people.
For each of these, the authors were able to collect all the data: those related to the pandemic (infections, hospitalizations, deaths) and those relating to public green spaces (measured in square kilometers per hundred thousand inhabitants). Furthermore, to evaluate the impact of air pollution on the Covid risk, the researchers also included in the analysis the average annual data relating to the detection of PM 2.5 (fine particulate matter) in the air.
By relating the various variables, the result was similar. In cities where green areas were more extensive, the impact of the pandemic was less. Both in 2020 (characterized by greater restrictions in both countries) and in 2021.
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An observation that was found both in Italy and in Spain: Countries characterized by a similar climate, but with public green coverage in different cities. Along the Peninsula, the presence of trees (22 million, compared to 59 million inhabitants) is in fact higher than that found in the country of the Iberian Peninsula (7 million for 47 million inhabitants). Nonetheless, the protective effect appears to have been the same.
As has been known for some time, in areas where public parks are more present, the average concentration of fine particles in the atmosphere was lower. An aspect confirmed also in the last study and which could have contributed to the determination of these data. “The specific mechanism of the interaction between the presence of green areas and Sars-CoV-2 activities, however, remains unknown”, admitted the researchers, coordinated by Alessandro Miani: researcher of political and environmental sciences at the State University of Milan and president of the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine.
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However, this is not the first time that the impact of Covid-19 has been shown to have been lower in cities where the presence of humans is better balanced than that of green areas, “governments should pay particular attention to the environment when formulating measures to prevent and control the epidemic situation and strengthen decisions in favor of environmental policies that favor the protection of air, water and soil throughout Europe “, is the authors’ recommendation.
Air pollution and Covid-19
The first works in which it was assumed that smog and a higher concentration of fine particles could increase the risk of contagion and favor a more serious course of the disease date back to 2020. And they arise from the acknowledgment that air pollution is associated with an increased risk of prolonged inflammation, even in young and healthy subjects: with the consequent hyperactivation of the immune system. Characteristics common to those found in patients affected by Covid-19. Hence the hypothesis that living in a place where the air quality is unhealthy may have made the impact of the disease more evident.
“It can be assumed that fewer green areas and higher levels of air pollution result in ideal conditions for the attachment, replication and transmission of the virus,” the study concluded. To this it must be added that those who habitually breathe air loaded with atmospheric pollutants are at greater risk of contracting respiratory infections.
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“In these conditions the viral transmission speed improves and the resistance capacity of our organism to infections decreases”, is what the researchers reiterated also in the last work. Without forgetting that some similar evidence – which correlated pollution to the frequency and course of infection – had already emerged between 2002 and 2004. On the occasion of the Sars epidemic, the ancestor of Sars-CoV-2.
The points still to be clarified
Despite the different epidemiological evidences, the relationship between air pollution and the impact of the pandemic has not yet been fully shed light. Based on the conclusions of this latest work, in some metropolises the consequences of Covid-19 should have been much more serious than those reported.
In Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh surrounded by a layer of fine dust almost four times higher (97.1 micrograms per cubic meter) than the average annual limit set by the European Union (25 micrograms per cubic meter), the officially registered deaths are 29,323 . on over two million inhabitants.
In Delhi, which according to the 2018 global air quality report is the most polluted city in the world by PM 2.5, there were even fewer deaths. To be exact: 26,448. Data far lower than expected, according to the premise that the greater the space left for public parks, the lower the chances of being infected by Sars-CoV-2: if not really affected by a severe form of Covid-19. And that show how living in a healthier place – although it helps to reduce the chances of developing cardiovascular, metabolic and pulmonary diseases – is not a sufficient aspect to read and interpret the numbers of the pandemic.
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