Severity of COVID-19 infection linked to air pollution: Canadian study – CTV

May 24, 2022

An extensive study of thousands of COVID-19 patients in Ontario hospitals found links between the severity of their infections and the levels of common air pollutants they experience.

“This adds to existing evidence that air pollution is a silent killer,” said Chen Chen, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of California and lead author of the study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The study looked at more than 150,000 COVID-19 cases in Ontario patients in 2020. It broke out how many of those patients were admitted to hospital because of the disease, how many were transferred to intensive care units and how many died.

Researchers then turned to previously developed data that combined air monitoring records with other sources, such as satellite imagery, to model levels across Ontario of three common pollutants — fine particles, nitrogen dioxide and ground-level ozone.

Read more: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/severity-of-covid-19-infection-linked-to-air-pollution-canadian-study-1.5915665