Air pollution is likely to be a major risk factor for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) mortality, scientists have concluded.

Prolonged exposure to air pollution leads to a chronic inflammatory response even among the young and healthy which makes people living in polluted areas more susceptible to developing chronic respiratory conditions. This theory is borne out by the high Covid-19-related death rates in northern Italy compared to the rest of the country, environmental scientists and physicians in Italy have concluded.

In a paper titled “Can atmospheric pollution be considered a co-factor in extremely high-level of SARS-CoV-2 lethality in Northern Italy?” published in Elsevier’s journal of Environmental Pollution on April 4, the scientists pointed that the mortality was 12% in Lombardy and Emilia Romagna, as compared to 4.5% in the rest of the country. This region is one of Europe’s most polluted based on data from Ozone Monitoring Instrument on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Aura satellite…