Air Pollution could increase death rates of COVID-19 patients
According to a latest study conducted by Harvard University, areas in United States that had high levels of air pollution before the outbreak of COVID-19 are more likely to see patients die from the infection.
Harvard says this is the first study to make an explicit link between air pollution and COVID-19 deaths, though experts have argued for some time that related respiratory symptoms can be exacerbated by poor air quality.
And this is not the first time an epidemic’s worst effects have been linked to high levels of air pollution. The researchers wrote their findings “are consistent with findings that air pollution exposure dramatically increased the risk of death during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, which is caused by another type of coronavirus.”
City leaders should be concerned about their air quality, based on previous findings that paint a gloomy picture of the level of pollutants. A report earlier this year from Environment America, U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) and Frontier Group found that one-third of Americans live in regions that saw more than 100 days with unhealthy air quality in 2018. That finding is similar to one from the American Lung Association, which found roughly 40% of the population live in counties with unhealthy levels of ozone or particulate matter pollution.
This study also warned that governments should continue to regulate air pollution and work hard to cut emissions, even when the worst of the pandemic is over. Cities across the world are seeing a reduction in emissions as people are social distancing and staying home, and researchers said lessons must be learned.
“The results of this study also underscore the importance of continuing to enforce existing air pollution regulations during the Covid-19 crisis,” the report reads. “Based on our result, we anticipate a failure to do so can potentially increase the Covid-19 death toll and hospitalizations, further burdening our health-care system and drawing resources away from Covid-19 patients.”
This theory has also been revealed by Chattisgarh’s State Health Resource Center (SHRC), which assessed that in Korba, those communities which are living near coal-fired thermal power plants are two times likely to suffer from respiratory diseases amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a a report published in the Times of India, the study establishes the hypothesis that the population living near thermal power plants has greater exposure to participate matter resulting in higher respiratory illness than the general population.
Executive Director of SHRC Dr. Prabir Chatterjee while speaking to TOI said that, “as per findings of the study, communities living in close vicinity of coal-fired thermal power plants in Korba are more prone to respiratory diseases than the general population. Therefore if a disease like COVID-19 which directly attacks the respiratory system, if reaches Korba, this population is highly vulnerable to the disease.”
Dr. Chatterjee further added that the administration should start a process of continuous monitoring of health and a robust health system dedicated to look after the air pollution related problems among the residents.
This kind of studies will definitely help the Government to identify the vulnerable places to take extra precaution in the times of this pandemic.
On the basis of both the studies Central Government should tally the number of deaths happened in the states and start working on the basis of this theory.