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Screenshot EEA
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Dark red means a high pollution level: this map of the European Environment Agency EEA shows the strong air pollution in Northern Italy
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keystone-sda.ch
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An industrial area near Milan.
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keystone-sda.ch
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Smog in China: is it no coincidence that in areas with heavy air pollution there are particularly many corona deaths?
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Screenshot corona-data.ch
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In the cantons of Vaud and Ticino, most corona deaths in Switzerland are to be mourned.
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Is it a coincidence that especially in Wuhan in China and northern Italy, a particularly large number of people die from Covid-19? Pollution could be one reason that northern Italy has become the Wuhan of Europe.
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As a study by the geoscientist Yaron Ogen from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) in Halle, Germany shows, in regions with a permanently high level of pollutants, significantly more people died after being infected with the corona virus than in other regions. A study by US researchers at Harvard University also suggests that there is a link between air pollution and a severe course of corona.
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Fine dust pollution and nitrogen dioxide
Pneumologists are cautious. Ogen cannot say how large the impact of environmental pollution is on the course of Covid-19 compared to other factors such as comorbidities. But that’s exactly what you have to find out, he demands.
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In his study, Ogen analyzed satellite data on air pollution on earth, weather data on air flows and information on corona deaths from Italy, France, Spain and Germany. Especially in regions heavily polluted with nitrogen dioxide, people died after an infection with Sars-CoV-2.
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A Map of the European Environment Agency EEA clearly shows: Italy has the most polluted air compared to other Western European countries. The northern Italy region in particular, which is particularly badly affected by the corona pandemic, has historically had high levels of air pollution. The EEA counts nitrogen dioxide, fine dust and ground-level ozone in its calculation of air pollution.
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In a study, researchers at Harvard University found that higher particulate matter levels were associated with an increase in the Covid-19 death rate.
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Weak immune defense
According to Berthold Jany, the former president of the German Society for Pneumology and Respiratory Medicine (DGP), this is not yet certain. According to Jany, air pollution and mortality are related, but it is uncertain whether this will also lead to a worse course of Covid disease.
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Frank Heimann, chairman of the German Association of Pneumologists, Sleeping and Respiratory Physicians, has so far seen no clear connection between airborne pollutants and death after a corona infection. Air pollution can, however, weaken the defense against infections in the long term, he says.
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Pollution in Switzerland
In Switzerland are loud Data from the Federal Office for the Environment (Bafu) Especially the heavily populated regions around Zurich, in the central plateau, on Lake Geneva and in Ticino are polluted by fine dust and nitrogen dioxide. Most corona deaths are in this country, according to the website corona-data.ch in western Switzerland (316) and Ticino (295). (SDA / noo)
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Corona virus—
The corona virus currently occupies the whole world and there are new developments every day. All current information and figures on the subject are available in the Coronavirus ticker.
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