Assessing the impact of long-term exposure to nine outdoor air pollutants on COVID-19 spatial spread and related mortality in 107 Italian provinces

Abstract

This paper investigates the air quality in 107 Italian provinces in the period 2014–2019 and the association between exposure to nine outdoor air pollutants and the COVID-19 spread and related mortality in the same areas. The methods used were negative binomial (NB) regression, ordinary least squares (OLS) model, and spatial autoregressive (SAR) model. The results showed that (i) common air pollutants—nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), and particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10)—were highly and positively correlated with large firms, energy and gas consumption, public transports, and livestock sector; (ii) long-term exposure to NO2, PM2.5, PM10, benzene, benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), and cadmium (Cd) was positively and significantly correlated with the spread of COVID-19; and (iii) long-term exposure to NO2, O3, PM2.5, PM10, and arsenic (As) was positively and significantly correlated with COVID-19 related mortality. Specifically, particulate matter and Cd showed the most adverse effect on COVID-19 prevalence; while particulate matter and As showed the largest dangerous impact on excess mortality rate. The results were confirmed even after controlling for eighteen covariates and spatial effects. This outcome seems of interest because benzene, BaP, and heavy metals (As and Cd) have not been considered at all in recent literature. It also suggests the need for a national strategy to drive down air pollutant concentrations to cope better with potential future pandemics.

Mechanistic view on the influence of fluctuations in outdoor temperature on the worsening of the course of the disease and hospitalizations associated with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron wave in 2022 in the Tomsk region, Russia

“…It is important to note that since the pandemic started, many authors have analyzed the issue of impact of many factors (weather conditions, air pollution and etc.) on COVID-19 incidence, severity, and mortality, and literature linking to this issue has increased exponentially and now hundreds studies show the different results (see related revies in (Kang et al, 2021; Prévost et al, 2021; Liang & Yuan, 2022; Mandal et al, 2022; McClymont & Hu, 2021; Mejdoubi et al, 2020; Runkle et al, 2020; To et al, 2021; Tripathi et al, 2022; Xie & Zhu, 2020; Carballo et al, 2022; Culqui et al, 2022; Ishmatov, 2022; Kang et al, 2021; Perone, 2022; Taylor et al, 2022)). Most of the studies are statistical and analyze the correlation between various influencing factors.…”

Extracting relevant predictive variables for COVID-19 severity prognosis: An exhaustive comparison of feature selection techniques

“…For this reason, we complemented patients' demographic and clinical variables with information about: a) their socioeconomic status (by postcode of residence, as a proxy for personal socioeconomic status), and b) their exposure to air pollutants (also by postcode). Not in vain, there exists increasing research and evidence about the effect of air pollution on the susceptibility to COVID-19 infection, severity and death [17][18][19][20][21][22][23]; as well as about demographic [24] and socioeconomic risk factors [25][26][27][28][29].…”

Five waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and green–blue spaces in urban and rural areas in Poland

“…A large impact on the spread of the virus as well as the number of infections was most often attributed to climatic factors ( Ahmadi et al, 2020 ; Islam et al, 2021 ; Werner et al, 2021 ; Akan, 2022 ). The international scientific literature emphasizes the key role of air quality and pollution (i.e., particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone) in the spread and severity of COVID-19 in various world regions ( Kowalski et al, 2021 ; Maleki et al, 2021 ; Carballo et al, 2022 ; Perone, 2022 ). Pollutants influence the immune system of susceptible individuals and may enhance the risk of severe and fatal COVID-19.…”