PARIS,\u00a0France\u00a0(AFP) \u2014 Long-term exposure to air pollution may be linked to 15 per cent of COVID-19 deaths globally, according to research published Tuesday that highlights the health risks posed by greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n
Previous research has showed how air pollution from exhaust fumes and factories takes two years off the life expectancy of every man, woman and child on Earth.<\/p>\n
Now experts in Germany and Cyprus say they have estimated the proportion of deaths from coronavirus that can be blamed of the exacerbating effects of air pollution.<\/p>\n
Their\u00a0study, published in the journal Cardiovascular Research, drew on health and disease data from the US and China relating to air pollution, COVID-19 and SARS — a serious lung disease similar to COVID.<\/p>\n
They combined this with satellite data of global exposure to particulate matter — microscopic particles — as well as ground-based pollution monitoring networks, to calculate to what extent air pollution can be blamed for COVID-19 deaths.<\/p>\n
In East Asia, which has some of the highest levels of harmful pollution on the planet, the authors found that 27 per cent of COVID-19 deaths could be attributed to the health effects of poor air quality.<\/p>\n
In Europe the proportion was 19 per cent, compared with 17 per cent in North America.<\/p>\n
“If both long-term exposure to air pollution and infection with the COVID-19 virus come together then we have an adverse effect on health, particularly with respect to the heart and blood vessels,” said paper co-author Thomas Munzel.<\/p>\n
He said that air pollution made known COVID-19 risk factors such as lung and heart problems more likely.<\/p>\n
Specifically, the team noted that particulate matter appeared to increase the activity of a receptor on lung cell surfaces, ACE-2, which is known to be involved in the way COVID-19 infects patients.<\/p>\n
“So we have a double hit: air pollution damages the lungs and increases the activity of ACE-2, which in turn leads to enhanced uptake of the virus,” said Munzel, a professor at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz.<\/p>\n
– ‘Remedy is reduce emissions’ –<\/strong><\/p>\n The authors stressed that attributing COVID-19 deaths to air pollution did not mean that pollution itself was killing people with COVID — though they didn’t rule out such a cause-effect linkage.<\/p>\n Jos Lelieveld, of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, told AFP that the research suggested “the pollution particles are a co-factor in aggravating the disease”.<\/p>\n He said their estimates suggested that more than 6,100 COVID deaths in Britain could be attributed to air pollution. In the US that figure is around 40,000.<\/p>\n The authors said that without a fundamental change in how cities power themselves, including a transition to clean and renewable energy sources, air pollution would continue to kill huge numbers of people even after the pandemic recedes.<\/p>\n “The pandemic ends with the vaccination of the population or with herd immunity through extensive infection of the population,” they wrote.<\/p>\n “However, there are no vaccines against poor air quality and climate change. The remedy is to mitigate emissions.”<\/p>\n PARIS,\u00a0France\u00a0(AFP) \u2014 Long-term exposure to air pollution may be linked to 15 per cent of COVID-19 deaths globally, according to research published Tuesday that highlights the health risks posed by greenhouse gas emissions. 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