The novel corona virus is not the only invisible threat. Humans have been living with other, even self-produced dangers for decades. He hardly notices them anymore, but breathes them in daily. Experts estimate that an average of 8.8 million people die each year from the effects of air pollution. Nitrogen dioxide also leads to around four million new asthma diseases in children every year.
The number of people infected with the coronavirus is constantly increasing. This article selection gives an insight into the effects of the infection:
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First China, then the rest of the world
Nothing has been normal since the past few weeks. Lockdown measures were introduced in China in January; many other countries, including Spain, France and Germany, followed in March. A Norwegian-German-Cypriot research team, including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, examined changes in air quality in a total of 27 countries as part of a study that is currently available as a preprint. For the first two weeks in which COVID-19 restrictions came into effect, they recorded the particulate matter and poisoning levels. The team investigated the effects of the measures on air quality and human health.
The majority of air pollution can be attributed to electricity generation, industry, transport and energy consumption in private households. Even if each country has implemented different regulations, they have a lot in common: in the first weeks of the lockdown, the economy is largely at a standstill, tourism hardly takes place anymore. School, shops and borders: closed. Traffic and public life: considerably restricted. This unprecedented exceptional situation made it possible, for the first time in history, to measure the short-term effect of the radical drop in emissions on atmosphere and air quality. On the one hand, the researchers evaluated the particulate matter pollution on the basis of satellite data, on the other hand, they recorded soil measurements at over 10,000 stations – taking meteorological fluctuations into account.
Rapid decrease in pollutant concentrations
Overall, air pollution decreased by about 20 percent during the first two weeks during the lockdowns. Due to the known levels of nitrogen dioxide, ozone and particulate matter, it was possible to calculate the daily health burden in the respective countries adjusted to the population density and to make predictions about how many deaths and new asthma diseases among children could be avoided by the end of the year, the emission-reducing restrictions continue to exist.
The prognosis: In these first two weeks alone, an estimated 7,400 premature deaths and 6,600 new asthma diseases were prevented. If the restrictions continued until the end of 2020 – which, of course, would have serious economic upheavals -, the prevention of 780,000 premature deaths and 1.6 million new asthma cases can be expected. The researchers concede that the measurements are random samples that can only be evaluated to a limited extent for entire countries. But what the results inevitably bring to mind is this: the social and working model before COVID-19 (“business as usual”) can certainly be considered a health hazard. It has fatal – and avoidable – consequences for millions of people worldwide.
Neglected threat: global air pollution
The call for easing the measures is getting louder after almost two months. The study’s authors, Zander S. Venter, Kristin Aunan, Sourangsu Chowdhury and Jos Lelieveld, emphasize that they do not want to suggest that the pandemic would in any way serve human health.
However, the measurements made the crisis a useful new perspective on global air pollution and its consequences. On average, it shortens human life by 2.9 years. The cause of the earlier death is primarily cardiovascular disease.
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