ArticleEnvironmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987)2020
Machine learning reveals that prolonged exposure to air pollution is associated with SARS-CoV-2 mortality and infectivity in Italy.
Article in Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The impact of air pollution on COVID-19 incidence, severity, and mortality: A systematic review of studies in Europe and North America.Environmental research · 2022Pooled it
- Towards Integrated Air Pollution Monitoring and Health Impact Assessment Using Federated Learning: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in public health · 2022Pooled it
- Health risk and disease burden of daily hospitalizations for vaginitis due to air pollution: evidence from a heavily-polluted-city in China.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Machine learning and XAI approaches highlight the strong connection betweenScientific reports · 2024Article
- Causal relationship between particulate matter 2.5 and infectious diseases: A two-sample Mendelian randomization study.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Mapping the long-term associations between air pollutants and COVID-19 risks and the attributable burdens in the continental United States.Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) · 2023Article
- Lung-Targeted Transgene Expression of Nanocomplexed Ad5 Enhances Immune Response in the Presence of Preexisting Immunity.Engineering (Beijing, China) · 2023Article
- Air Pollution, Oxidative Stress, and the Risk of Development of Type 1 Diabetes.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Review
- Satellite data and machine learning reveal a significant correlation between NOEnvironmental research · 2022Article
- Country-level factors dynamics and ABO/Rh blood groups contribution to COVID-19 mortality.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Intra-city variability of fine particulate matter during COVID-19 lockdown: A case study from Park City, Utah.Environmental research · 2021Article
- Traffic-induced atmospheric pollution during the COVID-19 lockdown: Dispersion modeling based on traffic flow monitoring in Turin, Italy.Journal of cleaner production · 2021Article
- The role of airborne particles and environmental considerations in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.Geoscience frontiers · 2021Review
- COVID-19 and environmental concerns: A rapid review.Renewable & sustainable energy reviews · 2021Review
- Why We Will Continue to Lose Our Battle with Cancers If We Do Not Stop Their Triggers from Environmental Pollution.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Review
- Does solar ultraviolet radiation play a role in COVID-19 infection and deaths? An environmental ecological study in Italy.The Science of the total environment · 2021Article
- How Do Inflammatory Mediators, Immune Response and Air Pollution Contribute to COVID-19 Disease Severity? A Lesson to Learn.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Contribution of machine learning approaches in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection.Informatics in medicine unlocked · 2021Review
- Assessing correlations between short-term exposure to atmospheric pollutants and COVID-19 spread in all Italian territorial areas.Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Air pollution can increase the risk of respiratory diseases, enhancing the susceptibility to viral and bacterial infections. Some studies suggest that small air particles facilitate the spread of viruses and also of the new coronavirus, besides the direct person-to-person contagion. However, the effects of the exposure to particulate matter and other contaminants on SARS-CoV-2 has been poorly explored. Here we examined the possible reasons why the new coronavirus differently impacted on Italian regional and provincial populations. With the help of artificial intelligence, we studied the importance of air pollution for mortality and positivity rates of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in Italy. We discovered that among several environmental, health, and socio-economic factors, air pollution and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), as its main component, resulted as the most important predictors of SARS-CoV-2 effects. We also found that the emissions from industries, farms, and road traffic - in order of importance - might be responsible for more than 70% of the deaths associated with SARS-CoV-2 nationwide. Given the major contribution played by air pollution (much more important than other health and socio-economic factors, as we discovered), we projected that, with an increase of 5-10% in air pollution, similar future pathogens may inflate the epidemic toll of Italy by 21-32% additional cases, whose 19-28% more positives and 4-14% more deaths. Our findings, demonstrating that fine-particulate (PM2.5) pollutant level is the most important factor to predict SARS-CoV-2 effects that would worsen even with a slight decrease of air quality, highlight that the imperative of productivity before health and environmental protection is, indeed, a short-term/small-minded resolution.
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