Long-Term Exposure to PM 2.5, Facemask Mandates, Stay Home Orders and COVID-19 Incidence in the United States

Fang Fang, Lina Mu, Yifang Zhu, Jianyu Rao, Jody Heymann and Zuo-Feng Zhang
Additional contact information
Fang Fang: Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Lina Mu: Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Health Professions, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA
Yifang Zhu: Department of Environmental Health Science, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Jianyu Rao: Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Jody Heymann: WORLD Policy Analysis Center, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Zuo-Feng Zhang: Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 12, 1-12

Abstract: Long-term PM 2.5 exposure might predispose populations to SARS-CoV-2 infection and intervention policies might interrupt SARS-CoV-2 transmission and reduce the risk of COVID-19. We conducted an ecologic study across the United States, using county-level COVID-19 incidence up to 12 September 2020, to represent the first two surges in the U.S., annual average of PM 2.5 between 2000 and 2016 and state-level facemask mandates and stay home orders. We fit negative binomial models to assess COVID-19 incidence in association with PM 2.5 and policies. Stratified analyses by facemask policy and stay home policy were also performed. Each 1-µg/m 3 increase in annual average concentration of PM 2.5 exposure was associated with 7.56% (95% CI: 3.76%, 11.49%) increase in COVID-19 risk. Facemask mandates and stay home policies were inversely associated with COVID-19 with adjusted RRs of 0.8466 (95% CI: 0.7598, 0.9432) and 0.9193 (95% CI: 0.8021, 1.0537), respectively. The associations between PM 2.5 and COVID-19 were consistent among counties with or without preventive policies. Our study added evidence that long-term PM 2.5 exposure increased the risk of COVID-19 during each surge and cumulatively as of 12 September 2020, in the United States. Although both state-level implementation of facemask mandates and stay home orders were effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19, no clear effect modification was observed regarding long-term exposure to PM 2.5 on the risk of COVID-19.

Keywords: particulate matter; COVID-19; facemasks; stay-home orders; nation-wide study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/12/6274/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/12/6274/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:12:p:6274-:d:572304

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().