Air pollution by gasoline, diesel engines likely to increase mortality from coronavirus: Experts
Public health experts have warned that air pollution from gasoline and diesel vehicles is likely to accelerate the fatality rate from the new coronavirus in urban centers.
In a statement on Monday, the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) warned that unclean air in cities that causes hypertension, diabetes and other respiratory illnesses could likely lead to higher overall death toll from the novel coronavirus currently sweeping the globe.
The COVID-19 disease, caused by the new coronavirus, which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, is currently affecting 162 countries and territories across the globe. It has so far infected more than 179,700 people and killed over 7,060 others.
Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a global pandemic.
According to the European Respiratory Society (EPS), which is member of the EPHA, emissions from gasoline and diesel vehicles are still at “dangerous” levels that can jeopardize the lives of the most vulnerable during the current and future pandemics.
“Patients with chronic lung and heart conditions caused or worsened by long-term exposure to air pollution are less able to fight off lung infections and more likely to die,” EPS member Sara De Matteis said.
“This is likely also the case for COVID-19,” added the expert, who is also an associate professor in occupational and environmental medicine at Italy's Cagliari University.
Many research institutes and pharmaceutical companies across the world are trying to develop a vaccine to battle the coronavirus, but no cure has yet been made.
There is currently no proven link between COVID-19 fatality and air pollution, but a peer-reviewed study into the 2003 SARS outbreak revealed that patients in regions with moderate air pollution levels were 84 percent more likely to lose their lives than those in areas with low air pollution.
COVID-19 is similar to SARS and can cause respiratory failure in severe cases.
A report by the European Environment Agency showed that air pollution leads to some 400,000 early deaths across Europe every year, despite the EU’s air quality directives.
The current pandemic has heavily influenced social, cultural and political aspects of human lives across the globe, closed borders in many countries, suspended numerous flights, shut down schools and universities and turned many cities into ghost towns.
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