tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Atmos Pollut Res
. 2020 Oct 7.
doi: 10.1016/j.apr.2020.10.002. Online ahead of print.
How do low wind speeds and high levels of air pollution support the spread of COVID-19?
Mario Coccia[SUP] 1 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is generating a high number of total infected individuals and deaths. One of the current questions is how climatological factors and environmental pollution can affect the diffusion of COVID-19 in human society. This study endeavours to explain the relation between wind speed, air pollution and the diffusion of COVID-19 to provide insights to constrain and prevent future pandemics and epidemics. The statistical analysis here focuses on case study of Italy and reveals two main findings: 1) cities with high wind speed have lower numbers of COVID-19 related infected individuals; 2) cities located in hinterland zones (mostly those bordering large urban conurbations) with little wind speed and frequently high levels of air pollution had higher numbers of COVID-19 related infected individuals. Results here suggest that high concentrations of air pollutants, associated with low wind speeds, may promote a longer permanence of the viral particles in the air, thus favouring an indirect means of diffusion of viral infectivity of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), in addition to the direct diffusion with human-to-human transmission dynamics.
Keywords: Air pollution; Air quality; Atmospheric pollution; COVID-19; Coronavirus disease; Environment and Health; Environmental policy; Particulate matter; Public health; SARS-CoV-2; Urban environment; Wind speed.
. 2020 Oct 7.
doi: 10.1016/j.apr.2020.10.002. Online ahead of print.
How do low wind speeds and high levels of air pollution support the spread of COVID-19?
Mario Coccia[SUP] 1 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 33046960
- PMCID: PMC7541047
- DOI: 10.1016/j.apr.2020.10.002
Abstract
The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is generating a high number of total infected individuals and deaths. One of the current questions is how climatological factors and environmental pollution can affect the diffusion of COVID-19 in human society. This study endeavours to explain the relation between wind speed, air pollution and the diffusion of COVID-19 to provide insights to constrain and prevent future pandemics and epidemics. The statistical analysis here focuses on case study of Italy and reveals two main findings: 1) cities with high wind speed have lower numbers of COVID-19 related infected individuals; 2) cities located in hinterland zones (mostly those bordering large urban conurbations) with little wind speed and frequently high levels of air pollution had higher numbers of COVID-19 related infected individuals. Results here suggest that high concentrations of air pollutants, associated with low wind speeds, may promote a longer permanence of the viral particles in the air, thus favouring an indirect means of diffusion of viral infectivity of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), in addition to the direct diffusion with human-to-human transmission dynamics.
Keywords: Air pollution; Air quality; Atmospheric pollution; COVID-19; Coronavirus disease; Environment and Health; Environmental policy; Particulate matter; Public health; SARS-CoV-2; Urban environment; Wind speed.