A new study comparing fatality statistics in Europe has linked high concentrations of nitrogen dioxide to deaths from COVID-19, showing that 78 percent of fatalities in the areas studied were in the five regions with the highest levels of the pollutant.
The study, reported through Science Direct, used fatality data from 66 administrative regions in Italy, Spain, France, and Germany through March 19. The regions with the most COVID-19 cases are located in Northern Italy and central Spain, and also had the highest levels of nitrogen dioxide, along with conditions that did not allow the gas to be dispersed.
“These results indicate that the long-term exposure to this pollutant may be one of the most important contributors to fatality caused by the COVID-19 virus in these regions and maybe across the whole world,” according to an abstract of the study.
Exposure to nitrogen dioxide, which comes from automobile, bus, and truck emissions, off-road equipment, and power plants, has been linked to respiratory diseases such as asthma and could make a person more susceptible to respiratory illnesses, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The gas can also create particulate matter, which has been linked in a separate Harvard University study to U.S. deaths from the virus.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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