Assessment of the relationship between exposure to air pollutants and COVID-19 pandemic in Tehran city, Iran

Atmospheric Pollution Research

article

Davood Namdar-Khojasteh¹  Bijan Yeghaneh²  Ali Maher³  Farzaneh Namdar-Khojasteh⁴  Jun Tu⁵ 

[1] Department of Soil Science, Soil and Health Group, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahed University;Faculty of Civil, Water and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University;Department of Health Services Management, School of Virtual, Medical Education and Management, Shahid Beheshti Medical University;Department of Radiology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences;Department of Geography and Anthropology, Kennesaw State University

关键词: Air pollution;    SARS-CoV-2;    Population exposure;    Tehran;    GIS;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.apr.2022.101474

学科分类：农业科学（综合）

来源: Dokuz Eylul Universitesi * Department of Environmental Engineering

【 摘 要 】

The COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus first identified in December 2019 has resulted in millions of deaths so far around the world. Controlling the spread of the disease requires a good understanding of the factors (e.g. air pollutants) that influence virus transmission and the conditions under which it spreads. This study analyzed the relationships between COVID-19 cases and both short-term (6-month) and long-term (60-month) exposures to eight air pollutants (NO, NO 2 , NOx, CO , SO 2 , O 3 , PM 2.5 and PM 10 ) in Tehran city, Iran, by integrating geostatistical interpolation models, regression analysis, and an innovated COVID-19 incidence rate calculation (Q-index) that considered the spatial distributions of both population and air pollution. The results show that the higher COVID-19 incidence rate was significantly associated with the exposure to higher concentrations of CO, NO, and NOx during the short-term period; the higher COVID-19 incidence rate was significantly related to the exposure to higher concentrations of PM 2.5 during the long-term period; while COVID-19 incidence rate was not significantly associated with the concentrations of O 3 , SO 2 , PM 10 and NO 2 in either period. This study indicates that exposure to air pollutants can effect an increase in the number of infected people by transmitting the virus through the air or by predisposing people to the disease over time. The Q-index calculation method developed in this study can be also used by other studies to calculate more accurate disease rates that consider the spatial distribution of both population and air pollution.

【 授权许可】

CC BY