Analysis of the Chemical and Physical Environmental Aspects that Promoted the Spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the Lombard Area

Roberto Dragone, Giorgio Licciardi, Gerardo Grasso, Costantino Del Gaudio and Jocelyn Chanussot
Additional contact information
Roberto Dragone: Istituto per lo Studio dei Materiali Nanostrutturati sede Sapienza, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy
Giorgio Licciardi: Gipsa-lab, Grenoble Institute of Technology, 38031 Grenoble, France
Gerardo Grasso: Istituto per lo Studio dei Materiali Nanostrutturati sede Sapienza, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, P.le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy
Costantino Del Gaudio: Fondazione E. Amaldi, Via del Politecnico, 00133 Rome, Italy
Jocelyn Chanussot: Gipsa-lab, Grenoble Institute of Technology, 38031 Grenoble, France

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-20

Abstract: Recent works have demonstrated that particulate matter (PM) and specific meteorological conditions played an important role in the airborne transmission of the SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV. These studies suggest that these parameters could influence the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. In the present investigation, we sought to investigate the association between air pollution, meteorological data, and the Lombardy region COVID-19 outbreak caused by SARS-CoV-2. We considered the number of detected infected people at the regional and provincial scale from February to March 2020. Air pollution data were collected over the Lombardy region, nominally, sulphur dioxide, ammonia, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen monoxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, and suspended particulate matter measuring less than 10 ?m (PM10) and less than 2.5 ?m (PM2.5). Meteorological data have been collected over the same region for temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed. In this work, we evaluated the combined impact of environmental pollutants and climate conditions on the COVID-19 outbreak. The analysis evidenced a positive correlation between spatial distribution of COVID-19 infection cases with high concentrations of suspended particulate matter and a negative relationship with ozone. Moreover, suspended particulate matter concentration peaks in February correlated positively with infection peaks according to the virus incubation period. The obtained results suggested that seasonal weather conditions and concentration of air pollutants seemed to influence COVID-19 epidemics in Lombardy region.

Keywords: COVID-19; particulate matter; meteorology; public health; epidemiology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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