Tiny air pollution rise linked to 11% more Covid-19 deaths – study

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/04/tiny-air-pollution-rise-linked-to-11-more-covid-19-deaths-study

Damian Carrington Environment editor
Wed 4 Nov 2020 13.00 EST Last modified on Wed 4 Nov 2020 13.02 EST

A small rise in people’s long-term exposure to air pollution is associated with an 11% increase in deaths from Covid-19, research has found. Another recent study suggests that 15% of all Covid-19 deaths around the world are attributable to dirty air.

The available data only allows correlations to be established and further work is needed to confirm the connections, but the researchers said the evidence was now strong enough that levels of dirty air must be considered a key factor in handling coronavirus outbreaks.

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The team also made estimates for countries, suggesting 27% of coronavirus deaths in China are attributable to air pollution, 26% in Germany, 18% in the US and 14% in the UK.

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