Air Pollution: Anathema To COVID 19 Sufferers?

Given that they already have compromised respiratory systems, does COVID 19 sufferers in cities with high levels of air pollution more likely to die that their counterparts in clean air locales?

By: Ringo Bones

Public health policymakers have been warning us for decades that polluted air is a serious threat to people with compromised respiratory systems – like ones suffering from asthma and related preexisting chronic lung conditions. Since the year 2000, about a million people die annually in Mainland China’s urban centers where the air quality falls far below the acceptable guidelines set by the World Health Organization. But since the advent of the COVID 19 pandemic, does polluted air spell the death knell to COVID 19 sufferers?

A recently published research from the Harvard University School of Public Health shows that COVID 19 sufferers living in cities with severe levels of air pollution are more likely to die than ones living in regions with much cleaner air. Even though pollution levels in cities have declined since lockdown measures were enforced. Polluted cities COVID 19 death rates are up to a third higher compared to cities with cleaner air and stricter enforced clean air policies.

Given that the Trump administration had rolled back the EPA’s Clean Air Act back in 2017, the increased levels of COVID 19 deaths in the United States could be attributable to increased pollution levels in major metropolitan areas. The Harvard study now highlights the importance of clean air laws when it comes to formulating public health policy.