Social Distancing, a Breath of Fresh Air for the Planet

Diabetes, overweight, obesity, heart problems, immune diseases and respiratory problems are factors that could put the life of COVID-19 patients in danger. Another aspect that has been underestimated until recently is air pollution. A Harvard Study revealed that an augment of one fine particle micrometer (PM2.5) per cubic meter of air, could be associated with a 15 percent increase in COVID-19’s death rate, said Francesca Dominici, Co-director of the Data Science Initiative at Harvard.

PM2.5 are tiny solid bodies or tiny polluted drops that usually derive from the combustion of fossil fuels. Scientists in this particular study counted the deaths of COVID-19 in the US and crossed data with average contamination of PM2.5 particles between 2000 to 2016. The study concluded that long exposure to air pollution could exacerbate the symptoms of COVID-19 patients.

Although the pandemic has been critical to health systems, it has also brought benefits to the environment. The study highlighted the case of north of Italy, where the pandemic is heavily concentrated and coexists within the largest industrial and cosmopolitan cities of the country. After a month of lockdown, air quality improved and the generation of nitrogen dioxide decreased. The US presents a similar situation. During lockdown, New York, with over 8.3 million inhabitants reduced its pollution by almost 50 percent.

Isolation measures have proven to be effective in reducing contamination even in the most extreme cases. New Delhi, India, one of the countries with the worst air quality in the world, revealed that the levels of PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide have plummeted by over 70 percent during lockdown. People in India recorded seeing the Himalayas for the first time because of the clearness of the air.

Mexico City is also one of the cities where air quality is not the greatest and traffic is one of the worst ones rated worldwide. At the moment, there has not been a substantial drop in air pollution but in the first month after social distancing measures began, traffic has decreased 70 percent.

Pictures from space show how dramatically air pollution in China has decreased since the beginning of social distancing in December. In February, with the closure of factories, schools, public transit services and airlines, air research from different cities in China showed that the PM2.5 level decreased to 22.3μg/m3, 25 percent of the average level.

According to environmental resource economist Marshal Burke, the decrease of pollution due to COVID-19 has brought an environmental dilemma to the table. Do the lives benefitted by reduced pollution outweigh the deaths caused by the virus? Burke estimated that reduced pollution could have saved the lives of approximately 4,000 children under five and 73,000 adults over the age of 70 in China. 

Some Chinese media have highlighted that after three months of isolation, its population has expressed happiness for returning to their daily lives but also for enjoying better air quality. Citizens in the cities are now enjoying clean air with outdoor activities. If this persists, it could bring health benefits to the entire world and save up to 36,000 lives a month, scientists say, against the 7 million lives lost per year due to air pollution. The key point is to find ways to mitigate polluting emissions without harming the economy and the well-being of the people. Unfortunately, environmental problems are not really a priority for governments around the world at the moment and will not be for the coming months.