The populations of Paris and Lombardy have been particularly affected by the pandemic. A correlation which is explained in particular by an increased fragility of the inhabitants to chronic inflammation caused by fine and ultrafine particles.
For a year, researchers had already established, particularly in the United States and Italy, that there is a direct link between the death rate from Covid-19 and air pollution with fine particles. This correlation is also very marked in Paris and in the big cities of Lombardy, where the atmospheric air is very charged in PM2.5 (fine particles which are less than 2.5 micrometres, or millionths of a meter in diameter). “Conversely, there are very few mortality peaks, per million inhabitants, in Baden-Württemberg or in North Rhine, where there have been no or few pollution peaks”adds Jean-Baptiste Renard, research director at the CNRS in Orléans and first author of an article published at the end of July in the journal Science of The Total Environment . His study covers 32 cities and regions of 6 European countries (Germany, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy and the Netherlands). It was carried out in conjunction with officials from the company Pollutrack, which equips vans…
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