School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China; Brunel Business School, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, United Kingdom.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Jul 20;727:138704. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138704. Epub 2020 Apr 15.
The novel coronavirus pneumonia, namely COVID-19, has become a global public health problem. Previous studies have found that air pollution is a risk factor for respiratory infection by carrying microorganisms and affecting body's immunity. This study aimed to explore the relationship between ambient air pollutants and the infection caused by the novel coronavirus. Daily confirmed cases, air pollution concentration and meteorological variables in 120 cities were obtained from January 23, 2020 to February 29, 2020 in China. We applied a generalized additive model to investigate the associations of six air pollutants (PM, PM, SO, CO, NO and O) with COVID-19 confirmed cases. We observed significantly positive associations of PM, PM, NO and O in the last two weeks with newly COVID-19 confirmed cases. A 10-μg/m increase (lag0-14) in PM, PM, NO, and O was associated with a 2.24% (95% CI: 1.02 to 3.46), 1.76% (95% CI: 0.89 to 2.63), 6.94% (95% CI: 2.38 to 11.51), and 4.76% (95% CI: 1.99 to 7.52) increase in the daily counts of confirmed cases, respectively. However, a 10-μg/m increase (lag0-14) in SO was associated with a 7.79% decrease (95% CI: -14.57 to -1.01) in COVID-19 confirmed cases. Our results indicate that there is a significant relationship between air pollution and COVID-19 infection, which could partially explain the effect of national lockdown and provide implications for the control and prevention of this novel disease.
新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）已成为全球公共卫生问题。先前的研究发现，空气污染通过携带微生物并影响人体免疫力成为呼吸道感染的危险因素。本研究旨在探索环境空气污染物与新型冠状病毒感染之间的关系。我们从中国 2020 年 1 月 23 日至 2 月 29 日获得了 120 个城市的每日确诊病例、空气污染浓度和气象变量数据。我们应用广义加性模型来研究六种空气污染物（PM、PM、SO、CO、NO 和 O）与 COVID-19 确诊病例之间的关联。我们观察到 PM、PM、NO 和 O 在最后两周与新确诊的 COVID-19 病例呈显著正相关。PM、PM、NO 和 O 浓度每增加 10μg/m（lag0-14），与 COVID-19 确诊病例的日增长率分别增加 2.24%（95%CI：1.02 至 3.46）、1.76%（95%CI：0.89 至 2.63）、6.94%（95%CI：2.38 至 11.51）和 4.76%（95%CI：1.99 至 7.52）。然而，SO 浓度每增加 10μg/m（lag0-14）与 COVID-19 确诊病例减少 7.79%（95%CI：-14.57 至-1.01）相关。我们的结果表明，空气污染与 COVID-19 感染之间存在显著关系，这部分解释了全国封锁的效果，并为该新型疾病的控制和预防提供了启示。
