First data analysis about possible COVID-19 virus airborne diffusion due to air particulate matter (PM): The case of Lombardy (Italy)
First data analysis about possible COVID-19 virus airborne diffusion due to air particulate matter (PM): The case of Lombardy (Italy)
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DOI：
10.1016/j.envres.2020.109639
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发表时间：
2020-07-01
影响因子：
8.3
通讯作者：
Bontempi, E.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bontempi, E.
意大利，尤其是伦巴第大区（主要是布雷西亚和贝加莫地区）于 2020 年 3 月上旬登记的 COVID-19 感染重症病例是在 PM10 污染一段时间后连续几天超过 50 mu g/m(3)（注意限值）浓度之后发生的。这两个事件应该是相关的，也是基于有关新病毒的有限信息。尽管文献中找不到明确的颗粒物（PM）在病毒传播机制中的作用，但一些研究人员推测PM可以作为病毒载体，促进其在空气中的扩散。本文首次分析了卫生紧急爆炸前几天伦巴第大区（2020年2月10日至3月27日）的PM10情况。同时报告和讨论发现的感染病例的数据。作为比较，还介绍了靠近伦巴第大区的皮埃蒙特的情况。报告了布雷西亚、贝加莫、克雷莫纳、洛迪、米兰、蒙扎-布里安扎、帕维亚（伦巴第）、亚历山德里亚、韦尔切利、诺瓦拉、比耶拉、阿斯蒂和都灵（皮埃蒙特）的数据。结果表明，不可能断定COVID-19的扩散机制也是通过空气、以PM10为载体发生的。特别是，研究表明，皮埃蒙特城市在调查期间与布雷西亚和贝加莫相比，检测到的感染病例较少，但与伦巴第城市相比，PM10 污染事件最严重。第一项研究可作为更好地理解和预测影响COVID-19扩散和传播途径的因素的参考，重点关注大气中空气颗粒物的作用。
The severe cases of COVID-19 infections in Italy, and notably in Lombardy (mainly in Brescia and Bergamo areas), registered at the beginning of March 2020, occurred after a period of PM10 pollution, that exceeded the concentration of 50 mu g/m(3) (the attention limit) for several days. The two events were supposed to be correlated, also based on the limited information available about the new virus. Despite that clear indications about the role of particulate matter (PM) in the virus mechanism dispersion cannot be found in literature, some researchers supposed that PM can act as virus carrier, promoting its diffusion through the air.This paper, for the first time, analyses the PM10 situation in Lombardy (from 10th February to March 27, 2020), several days before the sanitary emergency explosion. The data of the detected infection cases are reported and discussed parallelly. As a comparison, the situation of Piedmont, located near to the Lombardy is also presented. Data are reported for Brescia, Bergamo, Cremona, Lodi, Milano, Monza-Brianza, Pavia (Lombardy), Alessandria, Vercelli, Novara, Biella, Asti, and Torino (Piedmont). The results show that it is not possible to conclude that COVID-19 diffusion mechanism also occurs through the air, by using PM10 as a carrier. In particular, it is shown that Piedmont cities, presenting lower detected infections cases in comparison to Brescia and Bergamo in the investigated period, had most sever PM10 pollution events in comparison to Lombardy cities. This first study may serve as a reference to better understand and predict the factors affecting the COVID-19 diffusion and transmission routes, focusing on the role of air particulate matter in the atmosphere.