Effects of the spread of COVID-19 on public health of polluted cities: results of the first wave for explaining the dejà vu in the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic and epidemics of future vital agents

COVID-19 and Air Pollution: Measuring Pandemic Impact to Air Quality in Five European Countries

“…Research results indicate that in polluted cities, where an unstable atmosphere with high wind speeds can decrease air pollution and alleviate the spread of COVID-19 in society [39]. About 74.5% of infected individuals and 81% of total deaths in Italy caused by COVID-19 are in regions with high pollution concentration [40]. The same results were confirmed in the autumn-winter season of 2020-2021 [41].…”

“…PMs in the air have many sources and the concentration of PM 10 might vary not only with meteorology and emissions of primary PMs from a variety of sources, including traffic, industry, commerce, and domestic heating [74]. In some regions where people had to stay at home, there might be an increase in primary PMs emissions from domestic combustion of coal or wood, while emissions of NO 2 and primary PMs from traffic were reduced [19,[38][39][40][41]50]. The air pollution analysis results for Northern Italy (see Figure 6 and Table 2) imply a less significant impact on pollution reduction, compared to other countries during the lockdown period.…”

“…The intensive industrial activities, high population density, unfavorable geographical conditions for pollution dispersion-low wind speed, particular orography-in Northern Italy are the probable reason for this variation in results. Furthermore, recently published scientific research concludes that the decrease of traffic-related PM 10 was compensated by an increase in PM 10 associated with wood burning for domestic heating [31,[38][39][40][41]43,50,75,76], which is a very substantial contributor to PMs concentration. However, Table 2 test results show a decreasing trend in countries' PMs concentration data.…”

“…For instance, the highest concentration of confirmed COVID-19 cases was in Northern Italy, the Po valley to be exact, where the five Italian cities with the highest pollution levels are found [65][66][67]. Although some studies have found spatial coincidence among air pollution and high incidence and mortality [38][39][40][41]50,[65][66][67][68], there is a larger uncertainty and further epidemiological research is needed. Figure 3 shows the concentration of NO 2 , PM 2.5 , and PM 10 changes in Europe in the two different periods: 6 January 2020 data before the outbreak of COVID-19 and 31 March 2020, when most of Europe introduced national lockdowns.…”

“…For air quality analysis, we selected four European countries and focused on industrial regions: the United Kingdom (during the preparation of the study, the United Kingdom had not officially finished the Brexit procedures to leave the European Union), Spain, France, and Sweden, as well as the Northern Italy region, which were the most affected by COVID-19 and implemented different policies regarding the spread of the virus [39][40][41][42]50,51]. Northern Italian cities of Turin, Milan, and Genoa create an "industrial triangle" of Italy in Piemonte, Liguria, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, and Veneto regions, characterized by a high density of industrial plants, traffic, and intensive agriculture.…”