tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int
. 2022 Jan 4.
doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-18442-x. Online ahead of print.
Impacts of air pollution on COVID-19 case fatality rate: a global analysis
Chao Li[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Shunsuke Managi[SUP] 2 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is still rapidly spreading globally. To probe high-risk cities and the impacts of air pollution on public health, this study explores the relationship between the long-term average concentration of air pollution and the city-level case fatality rate (CFR) of COVID-19 globally. Then, geographically weighted regression (GWR) is applied to examine the spatial variability of the relationships. Six air pollution factors, including nitrogen dioxide (NO[SUB]2[/SUB]), sulfur dioxide (SO[SUB]2[/SUB]), ozone (O[SUB]3[/SUB]), PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB] (particles with diameter ≤2.5 μm), PM[SUB]10[/SUB] (particles with diameter ≤10 μm), and air quality index (AQI), are positively associated with the city-level COVID-19 CFR. Our results indicate that a 1-unit increase in NO[SUB]2[/SUB] (part per billion, PPB), SO[SUB]2[/SUB] (PPB), O[SUB]3[/SUB] (PPB), PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB] (microgram per cubic meter, μg/m[SUP]3[/SUP]), PM[SUB]10[/SUB] (μg/m[SUP]3[/SUP]), AQI (score), is related to a 1.450%, 1.005%, 0.992%, 0.860%, 0.568%, and 0.776% increase in the city-level COVID-19 CFR, respectively. Additionally, the effects of NO[SUB]2[/SUB], O[SUB]3[/SUB], PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB], AQI, and probability of living with poor AQI on COVID-19 spatially vary in view of the estimation of the GWR. In other words, the adverse impacts of air pollution on health are different among the cities. In summary, long-term exposure to air pollution is negatively related to the COVID-19 health outcome, and the relationship is spatially non-stationary. Our research sheds light on the impacts of slashing air pollution on public health in the COVID-19 pandemic to help governments formulate air pollution policies in light of the local situations.
Keywords: Air pollution; COVID-19; Case fatality rate; Spatial variability.
. 2022 Jan 4.
doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-18442-x. Online ahead of print.
Impacts of air pollution on COVID-19 case fatality rate: a global analysis
Chao Li[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Shunsuke Managi[SUP] 2 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 34982383
- DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-18442-x
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is still rapidly spreading globally. To probe high-risk cities and the impacts of air pollution on public health, this study explores the relationship between the long-term average concentration of air pollution and the city-level case fatality rate (CFR) of COVID-19 globally. Then, geographically weighted regression (GWR) is applied to examine the spatial variability of the relationships. Six air pollution factors, including nitrogen dioxide (NO[SUB]2[/SUB]), sulfur dioxide (SO[SUB]2[/SUB]), ozone (O[SUB]3[/SUB]), PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB] (particles with diameter ≤2.5 μm), PM[SUB]10[/SUB] (particles with diameter ≤10 μm), and air quality index (AQI), are positively associated with the city-level COVID-19 CFR. Our results indicate that a 1-unit increase in NO[SUB]2[/SUB] (part per billion, PPB), SO[SUB]2[/SUB] (PPB), O[SUB]3[/SUB] (PPB), PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB] (microgram per cubic meter, μg/m[SUP]3[/SUP]), PM[SUB]10[/SUB] (μg/m[SUP]3[/SUP]), AQI (score), is related to a 1.450%, 1.005%, 0.992%, 0.860%, 0.568%, and 0.776% increase in the city-level COVID-19 CFR, respectively. Additionally, the effects of NO[SUB]2[/SUB], O[SUB]3[/SUB], PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB], AQI, and probability of living with poor AQI on COVID-19 spatially vary in view of the estimation of the GWR. In other words, the adverse impacts of air pollution on health are different among the cities. In summary, long-term exposure to air pollution is negatively related to the COVID-19 health outcome, and the relationship is spatially non-stationary. Our research sheds light on the impacts of slashing air pollution on public health in the COVID-19 pandemic to help governments formulate air pollution policies in light of the local situations.
Keywords: Air pollution; COVID-19; Case fatality rate; Spatial variability.