Corona: Air pollution - the underestimated factor
Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.
More posts by Christiane Fux All content is checked by medical journalists.Covid-19 could be more severe in people who have been exposed to high levels of air pollution for long periods of time. This could provide a further explanation for regionally different death statistics.
In regions with permanently high levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution, significantly more deaths from Covid-19 occurred than in other regions. This is shown by a study by the University of Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). The air pollutant damages the airways. It has been known for many years that it can promote various respiratory diseases as well as cardiovascular problems in humans.
"Since the novel coronavirus affects the respiratory tract, it seems reasonable to assume that there could be a connection between air pollution and Covid-19 deaths," said Dr. Yaron Ogen from the Institute for Geosciences and Geography at MLU. For the first time, the researcher has presented specific figures that support this hypothesis.
High pollution with stagnant air
For the evaluation, the researcher used measurements of the regional pollution with nitrogen dioxide. They come from the "Sentinel 5P" satellite of the European Space Agency, which continuously monitors global air pollution.
The scientist combined these data with information from the US weather agency NOAA on air currents in different regions. The idea behind it: If the air is in motion, the pollutants close to the ground are also distributed more strongly. If the air is less mixed, this also applies to the pollutants in the air. They are then more likely to be inhaled by humans and can cause health problems.
From the combination of the data, the researcher identified hotspots worldwide with high levels of air pollution and, at the same time, low air movement. The advantage of the analysis is that it looks at individual regions and not just compares countries with one another. Because within a country, air pollution can be very different.
78 percent of deaths in heavily polluted regions
The analysis of the data from Italy, France, Spain and Germany showed: Of the 4443 deaths included in the study, 3487 (78 percent) occurred in five regions in northern Italy and central Spain. In the same regions, nitrogen dioxide pollution is particularly high and vertical air exchange is particularly low.
"If we look at northern Italy, the greater Madrid area or the province of Wuhan in China, for example, we see a peculiarity: They are all surrounded by mountains. This makes it even more likely that the air in these regions will be stable and the pollution with pollutants higher is, "said Ogen.
Bad air, bad health
The geoscientist suspects that long-term air pollution in the affected regions could have contributed to poorer health of the people overall - and that they are therefore particularly susceptible to the virus. Further research has yet to confirm this. Because, of course, completely different, consistent regional differences could also contribute to the fact that the proportion of deceased is so much higher in some areas.
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