The research group of Prof. Enrico Caiani of the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering of the Politecnico di Milano has developed, in collaboration with the Agenzia Regionale Emergenza Urgenza (AREU), an innovative and “data driven” method which demonstrates how geo-localized information relating to ambulance interventions can be used to monitor the evolution of Covid-19 in a given area. Starting from this method, the data relating to the first pandemic peak were correlated with ARPA’s data on the concentration of various pollutants in Lombardy.
For each district of 100,000 inhabitants, an estimate of the speed of the virus spreading was calculated by means of an exponential regression of the values of daily services performed by ambulances. In addition, each district has been assigned a class relating to the main land use (agricultural, urban, natural, mixed).
Starting from the data collected by ARPA through 85 measuring stations, the average concentration value for various pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, NO, NO2, O3, CO, NH3, SO2, C6H6) was calculated for each district on a period of 1, 6 and 12 months prior to the onset of the pandemic in February 2020.
The results show for the first time a relationship between the levels of exposure to ammonia (NH3) and the estimated speed of the Covid-19 spreading, in particular in areas characterized by agricultural or mixed activities.
These results lead to the hypothesis that oxidative stress, one of the mechanisms of NH3 toxicity, could have contributed to a condition of fragility linked to an inflammatory state in the residents of these areas, which would then have facilitated the virus replication and the worsening of health conditions, leading to the request for an ambulance.The Study
Gianquintieri, L.; Brovelli, M.A.; Pagliosa, A.; Bonora, R.; Sechi, G.M.; Caiani, E.G. “Geospatial Correlation Analysis between Air Pollution Indicators and Estimated Speed of COVID-19 Diffusion in the Lombardy Region (Italy)”. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 12154. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182212154