SARS-CoV-2 is the respiratory virus that is responsible for the COVID-19 disease. There are many factors that influence a person's chance of being affected by SARS-CoV-2, such as age or underlying diseases, and one of these factors is air pollution. Since COVID-19 is a novel disease, scientists are continuing to study the effects of air pollution, but at the moment, scientists believe that there are three main ways air pollution is affecting the disease. Firstly, there is a higher death rate of SARS-CoV-2 in people that have a weakened heart or lungs as a result of dirty air. Exposure to fine particulates is already proven to increase the chance of lung cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and even premature death. In the 2002 SARS pandemic, Dr. Zuo-Feng Zhang found that, “SARS patients in the most polluted parts of China were twice as likely to die from the disease as those in places with low air pollution.” During this pandemic, a person living in a region with just 1 unit more of particulate pollution is 15% more likely to die from COVID-19 than a person living elsewhere. Air pollution is already a widespread problem and has made COVID-19 even more deadly. Secondly, lungs can become inflamed from air pollution, which may make COVID-19 easier to catch. In Boston, areas such as Chelsea, Brockton, Everett, Lynn, Randolph, and Lawrence have been hit the hardest. In these cities, there is a high percentage of low-income, minority residents and these communities also have high rates of environmentally-related respiratory diseases, such as asthma. One reason this is happening is because thousands of trucks pass through the New England Produce Center, releasing tons of emissions into the air. This resulted in Chelsea becoming a statewide epicenter of COVID-19, and having an increased risk of death from COVID-19. Lastly, COVID-19 can be found in particles of air pollution, which implies that the virus can be carried farther than it originally would have been able to. Even though air pollution levels may have decreased due to quarantine (and are already increasing again) it has already impacted many aspects of this pandemic. References:
Carrington, Damian. "Coronavirus Detected on Particles of Air Pollution." The Guardian, 24 Apr. 2020, www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/24/coronavirus-detected- particles-air-pollution. Accessed 5 May 2020. Carrington, Damian. "Is Air Pollution Making the Coronavirus Pandemic Even More Deadly?" The Guardian, 4 May 2020, www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/04/is-air- pollution-making-the-coronavirus-pandemic-even-more-deadly. Accessed 5 May 2020. Friedman, Lisa. "New Research Links Air Pollution to Higher Coronavirus Death Rates." The New York Times, 7 Apr. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/climate/air-pollution- coronavirus-covid.html. Accessed 5 May 2020. Greenberg, Zoe. "Massachusetts Communities with Dirty Air Are Coronavirus Hotspots." The Boston Globe, 29 Apr. 2020, www.bostonglobe.com/2020/04/29/metro/pollution- might-affect-states-covid-19-hotspots-harvard-study-shows/. Accessed 18 May 2020.
0 Comments
|
Jacqueline LeeClass of 2023 |