tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
J Environ Health Sci Eng
. 2022 Jan 6;1-9.
doi: 10.1007/s40201-022-00786-2. Online ahead of print.
A city-level analysis of PM [SUB]2.5[/SUB] pollution, climate and COVID-19 early spread in Spain
Álvaro Briz-Redón[SUP] #[/SUP][SUP] 1 [/SUP], Carolina Belenguer-Sapiña[SUP] #[/SUP][SUP] 2 [/SUP], Ángel Serrano-Aroca[SUP] 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
Purpuse: The COVID-19 outbreak has escalated into the worse pandemic of the present century. The fast spread of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has caused devastating health and economic crises all over the world, with Spain being one of the worst affected countries in terms of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths per inhabitant. In this situation, the Spanish Government declared the lockdown of the country.
Methods: The variations of air pollution in terms of fine particulate matter (PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB]) levels in seven representative cities of Spain are analyzed here considering the effect of meteorology during the national lockdown. The possible associations of PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB] pollution and climate with COVID-19 accumulated cases were also analyzed.
Results: While the epidemic curve was flattened, the results of the analysis show that the 4-week Spanish lockdown significantly reduced the PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB] levels in only one city despite the drastically reduced human activity. Furthermore, no associations between either PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB] exposure or environmental conditions and COVID-19 transmission were found during the early spread of the pandemic.
Conclusions: A longer period applying human activity restrictions is necessary in order to achieve significant reductions of PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB] levels in all the analyzed cities. No effect of PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB] pollution or weather on COVID-19 incidence was found for these pollutant levels and period of time.
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40201-022-00786-2.
Keywords: COVID-19 spread; Climate; Lockdown; PM2.5 pollution; SARS-CoV-2.
. 2022 Jan 6;1-9.
doi: 10.1007/s40201-022-00786-2. Online ahead of print.
A city-level analysis of PM [SUB]2.5[/SUB] pollution, climate and COVID-19 early spread in Spain
Álvaro Briz-Redón[SUP] #[/SUP][SUP] 1 [/SUP], Carolina Belenguer-Sapiña[SUP] #[/SUP][SUP] 2 [/SUP], Ángel Serrano-Aroca[SUP] 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 35018223
- PMCID: PMC8734552
- DOI: 10.1007/s40201-022-00786-2
Abstract
Purpuse: The COVID-19 outbreak has escalated into the worse pandemic of the present century. The fast spread of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has caused devastating health and economic crises all over the world, with Spain being one of the worst affected countries in terms of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths per inhabitant. In this situation, the Spanish Government declared the lockdown of the country.
Methods: The variations of air pollution in terms of fine particulate matter (PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB]) levels in seven representative cities of Spain are analyzed here considering the effect of meteorology during the national lockdown. The possible associations of PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB] pollution and climate with COVID-19 accumulated cases were also analyzed.
Results: While the epidemic curve was flattened, the results of the analysis show that the 4-week Spanish lockdown significantly reduced the PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB] levels in only one city despite the drastically reduced human activity. Furthermore, no associations between either PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB] exposure or environmental conditions and COVID-19 transmission were found during the early spread of the pandemic.
Conclusions: A longer period applying human activity restrictions is necessary in order to achieve significant reductions of PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB] levels in all the analyzed cities. No effect of PM[SUB]2.5[/SUB] pollution or weather on COVID-19 incidence was found for these pollutant levels and period of time.
Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40201-022-00786-2.
Keywords: COVID-19 spread; Climate; Lockdown; PM2.5 pollution; SARS-CoV-2.