Effects of short- and long-term exposure to atmospheric pollution on COVID-19 risk and fatality: analysis of the first epidemic wave in northern Italy.

The effects of exposure to atmospheric pollution on the incidence and mortality due to COVID-19 have been studied but not for sulfur dioxide (SO2) in most studies. However, most studies failed to consider important cofounding factors in the estimation of health effects of air pollution. The objective of the study was to assess the short- and long-term effects of air pollution on the COVID-19 risk and fatality in Lombardy and Veneto. Air pollutants were studied based on monitoring station information in Lombardy and Veneto from January 2013 to May 2020. The daily number of cases and deaths of COVID-19 were collected from the reports of the Italian Ministry of Health in Italy. A generalized linear model with the generalized estimating equation method was used to evaluate the effects of short- and long-term exposure to air pollution on the COVID-19 outbreak in Lombardy and Veneto. After adjusting for other covariates, we found that short-term exposure to PM2.5 and PM10 had a tendency to increase the incidence and mortality of COVID-19 than long-term exposure, while for other air pollutants, including SO2 and NO2, long-term exposure was more significant than short-term exposure. Both short- and long-term exposure of SO2 resulted in increased health effects on COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings suggest that exposure to atmospheric pollution has a significant impact on COVID-19 pandemic and call for further researches to deeply investigate this topic.