There would be a strong correlation between coronavirus mortality and fine particulate matter pollution, according to a study by Harvard University also cited by the Istituto superiore di sanità.
There would be a correlation between fine particulate matter pollution and coronavirus mortality. For every increase of just one microgram per cubic metre of PM2.5, meaning particles with an aerodynamic diameter of less than or equal to 2.5 micrometres (μm), there would be a corresponding 15 per cent increase in the mortality rate of the Sars-Cov-2 virus. This is the finding of a study by Harvard University in which Italian researcher Francesca Dominici also took part, according to whom "the results obtained are statistically significant and robust, with a confidence interval — that is, the margin of reliability — of 95 per cent", and which the Istituto superiore di sanità and the Consiglio superiore di sanità also described as "very robust".
In recent weeks we have been getting used to seeing photos of idyllic landscapes and clear skies, emptied of human beings and above all of pollution due to the near-total halt in productive activities: well, the reduction of fine particulate matter in the air could be not only a positive consequence of the coronavirus, but also and above all what could save our lives.
The Harvard researchers, from the highly prestigious university in Massachusetts, in the United States, decided to look more closely at the correlation between the main coronavirus outbreaks in the United States, where the estimated total number of victims could reach as many as 240,000, discovering that the areas with the highest mortality rates are the same ones where air pollution is greatest.
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And while the risk increases by 15 per cent on average, in some areas it reaches as high as 20 per cent. That is why, as stated in the conclusions of the research itself, "it is important to increase efforts to stop fine particulate matter pollution, to protect human health during, but also after the Covid-19 crisis".
In recent weeks, hypotheses have been put forward about the possible correlation between pollution and the coronavirus pandemic, drawing also on the cases of Wuhan (Hubei is one of China's most industrialised regions) and Lombardy (well known is the image overlaying the concentration of factories in the Po Valley with Italy's main outbreak).
The Harvard study is the first to put the matter down in writing in a scientific way: the researchers collected data on Covid-19 deaths and long-term average exposure to ultra-fine particulate matter across approximately three thousand counties in the United States, accounting for 98 per cent of the population, up to 4 April, also taking into account important variables such as the availability of intensive care beds relative to the number of inhabitants, the number of swab tests carried out, socio-economic and behavioural variables including diet, smoking dependency, body weight, and even local meteorological conditions.
A study so precise that it was immediately taken very seriously in Italy too: on 10 April, the day of publication, during the weekly press conference at the Istituto superiore di Sanità, president Silvio Brusaferro described it as "an absolutely solid study, which calls for important reflection. Iss researchers will work on this scenario, which must be taken into consideration in phase 2". Brusaferro also noted that "the reduction of fine particulate matter is something Italy was already working on, because it forms part of the sustainable development goals of Agenda 2030".
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is the action programme divided into 17 goals concerning people, the planet and prosperity, signed in September 2015 by the governments of the 193 member states of the United Nations. The eleventh goal of the Agenda, entitled Sustainable Cities and Communities, includes among its various targets reducing the per capita negative environmental impact of cities by 2030, particularly with regard to air quality and waste management: despite a slow improvement, in 2019 as many as 55 Italian provincial capitals had exceeded the permitted limit for fine particulate matter in the air, and according to Legambiente in January 2020 alone there were already five cities in breach of the law, four of which (Milan, Padua, Turin and Treviso) in the three regions today hardest hit by the virus. For Harvard, this is no coincidence.
