COVID-19 and air pollution: the worst is yet to come

Dutheil, Frédéric; Baker, Julien S.; Navel, Valentin

doi:10.1007/s11356-020-11075-6

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…A robust body of experimental evidence suggests that pollution should be recognized as an important cofactor for increased transmission and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection outcomes and mortality. It was therefore interesting to learn of the significant reduction in NO2, CO2, and O3 as a result of the decrease in human activities during the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in northeast China (epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic onset) known to be affected by this massive increase in carbon emissions due mostly to transport (Dutheil et al 2020a , b ; Wang et al 2020 ). Thus, in the extremely dramatic context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, this overall decrease of atmospheric pollution has offered a very strong signal for the conservation of our environment and some related cardiovascular and respiratory diseases (Guan et al 2016 ; Cramer et al 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Semen quality as a potential susceptibility indicator to SARS-CoV-2 insults in polluted areas

Montano¹,

Donato

Bianco

et al. 2021

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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The epidemic of the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has impacted worldwide with its infectious spread and mortality rate. Thousands of articles have been published to tackle this crisis and many of these have indicated that high air pollution levels may be a contributing factor to high outbreak rates of COVID-19. Atmospheric pollutants, indeed, producing oxidative stress, inflammation, immuno-unbalance, and systemic coagulation, may be a possible significant co-factor of further damage, rendering the body prone to infections by a variety of pathogens, including viruses. Spermatozoa are extremely responsive to prooxidative effects produced by environmental pollutants and may serve as a powerful alert that signals the extent that environmental pressure, in a specific area, is doing damage to humans. In order to improve our current knowledge on this topic, this review article summarizes the relevant current observations emphasizing the weight that environmental pollution has on the sensitivity of a given population to several diseases and how semen quality, may be a potential indicator of sensitivity for virus insults (including SARS-CoV-2) in high polluted areas, and help to predict the risk for harmful effects of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. In addition, this review focused on the potential routes of virus transmission that may represent a population health risk and also identified the areas of critical importance that require urgent research to assess and manage the COVID-19 outbreak.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Semen quality as a potential susceptibility indicator to SARS-CoV-2 insults in polluted areas

Montano¹,

Donato

Bianco

et al. 2021

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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“…Therefore, it is imperative to study different factors, including humidity, temperature, wind speed, and air pressure, and their influence on Covid-19 cases. While most of the studies have investigated the impact of the Covid-19 period on air quality (Dutheil et al 2020 ), this study investigates the impact of air quality on Covid-19 cases. Due to the non-availability of Air Quality Index (AQI) data on daily basis for the countries under study, we have used PM2.5 (one of the air pollutants) as a proxy for AQI.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meteorological factors, COVID-19 cases, and deaths in top 10 most affected countries: an econometric investigation

Sharma

Bansal

Yadav

et al. 2021

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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Graphical abstract This paper examines the nexus between the Covid-19 confirmed cases, deaths, meteorological factors, including an air pollutant among the world’s top 10 infected countries, from 1 February 2020 through 30 June 2020, using advanced econometric techniques to address heterogeneity across the nations. The findings of the study suggest that there exists a strong cross-sectional dependence between Covid-19 cases, deaths, and all the meteorological factors for the countries under study. The findings also reveal that a long-term relationship exists between all the meteorological factors. There exists a bi-directional causality running between the Covid-19 cases and all the meteorological factors. With Covid-19 death cases as the dependent variable, there exists bi-directional causality running between the Covid-19 death cases and Covid-19 confirmed cases, air pressure, humidity, and temperature. Temperature and air pressure exhibit a statistically significant and negative impact on the Covid-19 confirmed cases. Air pollutant PM2.5 also exhibits a significant but positive impact on the Covid-19 confirmed cases. Temperature indicates a statistically significant and negative impact on the Covid-19 death cases. At the same time, Covid-19 confirmed cases and air pollutant PM2.5 exhibit a statistically significant and positive impact on the Covid-19 death cases across the ten countries under study. Hence, it is possible to postulate that cool and dry weather conditions with lower temperatures may promote indoor activities and human gatherings (assembling), leading to virus transmission. This study contributes both practically and theoretically to the concerned field of pandemic management. Our results assist in taking appropriate measures in implementing intersectoral policies and actions as necessary in a timely and efficient manner. Causal relations of Meteorological factors and Covid-19 (2 models used in the study) Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-021-12668-5.

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“…To limit the spread of pandemic, governments in countries around the world have imposed various restrictions, which led to reduction of people movement, decrease in transport (road and aviation), and even suspended industrial activities 3 . While COVID-19 has caused many adverse changes to our society and economies 4 , 5 and even to environment (in a form of newly created medical waste 6 ), some studies have emphasized a possible improvement of the state of the environment 7 . People confinement, restricted public transport and ceased airlines international flights have also resulted in changes in air pollutant emissions, with information for megacities (Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo 8 , 9 ; and highly populated urban zones and cities 10 – 17 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

2020 COVID-19 lockdown and the impacts on air quality with emphasis on urban, suburban and rural zones

Slezáková

Pereira

2021

Sci Rep

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Air quality improvements pollution changes due to COVID-19 restrictions have been reported for many urban developments and large metropolitan areas, but the respective impacts at rural and remote zones are less frequently analysed. This study evaluated air pollution changes across all Portugal (68 stations) considering all urban, suburban and rural zones. PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, ozone was analysed in pre-, during, and post-lockdown period (January–May 2020) and for a comparison also in 2019. NO2 was the most reduced pollutant in 2020, which coincided with decreased traffic. Significant drop (15–71%) of traffic related NO2 was observed specifically during lockdown period, being 55% for the largest and most populated region in country. PM was affected to a lesser degree (with substantial differences found for largely populated areas (Lisbon region ~ 30%; North region, up to 49%); during lockdown traffic-related PM dropped 10–70%. PM10 daily limit was exceeded 50% less in 2020, with 80% of exceedances before lockdown period. SO2 decreased by 35%, due to suspended industrial productions, whereas ozone concentrations slightly (though not significantly) increased (83 vs. 80 µg m–3).

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COVID-19 and air pollution: the worst is yet to come

Abstract: Comment on: "Spatio-temporal characteristics of the relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth in China's transportation industry.

Cited by 9 publications

References 10 publications

Semen quality as a potential susceptibility indicator to SARS-CoV-2 insults in polluted areas

Semen quality as a potential susceptibility indicator to SARS-CoV-2 insults in polluted areas

Meteorological factors, COVID-19 cases, and deaths in top 10 most affected countries: an econometric investigation

2020 COVID-19 lockdown and the impacts on air quality with emphasis on urban, suburban and rural zones

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