Naqvi Hasan Raja, Mutreja Guneet, Shakeel Adnan, Singh Karan, Abbas Kumail, Naqvi Darakhsha Fatma, Chaudhary Anis Ahmad, Siddiqui Masood Ahsan, Gautam Alok Sagar, Gautam Sneha, Naqvi Afsar Raza
Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia (A Central University), New Delhi 110025, India.
Environmental Systems Research Institute, R & D Center, New Delhi, India.
Gondwana Res. 2023 Feb;114:30-39. doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2022.04.016. Epub 2022 May 4.
Globally, wildfires have seen remarkable increase in duration and size and have become a health hazard. In addition to vegetation and habitat destruction, rapid release of smoke, dust and gaseous pollutants in the atmosphere contributes to its short and long-term detrimental effects. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has emerged as a public health concern worldwide that primarily target lungs and respiratory tract, akin to air pollutants. Studies from our lab and others have demonstrated association between air pollution and COVID-19 infection and mortality rates. However, current knowledge on the impact of wildfire-mediated sudden outburst of air pollutants on COVID-19 is limited. In this study, we examined the association of air pollutants and COVID-19 during wildfires burned during August-October 2020 in California, United States. We observed an increase in the tropospheric pollutants including aerosols (particulate matter [PM]), carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO) by approximately 150%, 100% and 20%, respectively, in 2020 compared to the 2019. Except ozone (O), similar proportion of increment was noticed during the peak wildfire period (August 16 - September 15, 2020) in the ground PM, CO, and NO levels at Fresno, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco, cities with largest active wildfire area. We identified three different spikes in the concentrations of PM, and CO for the cities examined clearly suggesting wildfire-induced surge in air pollution. Fresno and Sacramento showed increment in the ground PM, CO and NO levels, while San Diego recorded highest change rate in NO levels. Interestingly, we observed a similar pattern of higher COVID-19 cases and mortalities in the cities with adverse air pollution caused by wildfires. These findings provide a logical rationale to strategize public health policies for future impact of COVID-19 on humans residing in geographic locations susceptible to sudden increase in local air pollution.
在全球范围内，野火的持续时间和规模显著增加，已成为一种健康危害。除了破坏植被和栖息地外，大气中烟雾、灰尘和气态污染物的迅速释放会造成短期和长期的有害影响。严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）已成为全球公共卫生问题，主要侵袭肺部和呼吸道，类似于空气污染物。我们实验室和其他机构的研究表明，空气污染与新冠病毒疾病（COVID-19）感染及死亡率之间存在关联。然而，目前关于野火介导的空气污染物突然爆发对COVID-19影响的了解有限。在本研究中，我们调查了2020年8月至10月美国加利福尼亚州野火燃烧期间空气污染物与COVID-19之间的关联。我们观察到，与2019年相比，2020年对流层污染物包括气溶胶（颗粒物[PM]）、一氧化碳（CO）和二氧化氮（NO）分别增加了约150%、100%和20%。除臭氧（O）外，在野火高峰期（2020年8月16日至9月15日），弗雷斯诺、洛杉矶、萨克拉门托、圣地亚哥和旧金山等野火活跃面积最大的城市，地面PM、CO和NO水平也出现了类似比例的增加。我们在检测的城市中确定了PM和CO浓度的三个不同峰值，清楚地表明野火导致空气污染激增。弗雷斯诺和萨克拉门托的地面PM、CO和NO水平有所增加，而圣地亚哥的NO水平变化率最高。有趣的是，我们在因野火导致空气污染严重的城市中观察到了类似的COVID-19高病例数和死亡率模式。这些发现为制定公共卫生政策提供了合理依据，以便应对未来COVID-19对居住在当地空气污染可能突然增加地区的人群的影响。
