Wildfire Smoke Exposure: Covid19 Comorbidity?
Open Access
- 12 February 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by MDPI AG in Journal of Respiration
- Vol. 1 (1), 74-79
- https://doi.org/10.3390/jor1010007
Abstract
Air pollution, particularly fine and ultrafine particulate matter aerosols, underlies a wide range of communicable and non-communicable disease affecting many systems including the cardiopulmonary and immune systems, and arises primarily from transportation and industry. A number of air pollution driven diseases also are Covid19 comorbidities. Thus, a number of studies on air pollution exposure, particularly particulate matter, strongly indicate air pollution is an important underlying factor in Covid19 transmission, severity, and mortality. This suggests that air pollution from natural sources, particularly wildfires, could play a role in the Covid19 pandemic. We tested this hypothesis on three wildfire smoke events in Orange County, CA, each of which was followed by Covid19 case increases after an approximately one-week lag. This lag was consistent with combined incubation time and testing/reporting times. Moreover, the three events suggest a dose dependency. The wildfire comorbidity hypothesis implies that at-risk-populations should reduce smoke exposure from wildfires, as well as indoors from biomass burning for heating, cooking, and aesthetic purposes.Keywords
This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit:
- The COVID-19 Pandemic and Wildfire Smoke: Potentially Concomitant DisastersAmerican Journal of Public Health, 2020
- Effects of air pollutants on the transmission and severity of respiratory viral infectionsEnvironmental Research, 2020
- Air Pollution and COVID-19: The Role of Particulate Matter in the Spread and Increase of COVID-19’s Morbidity and MortalityInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020
- Air pollution and its effects on the immune systemFree Radical Biology & Medicine, 2020
- Air Pollution and Noncommunicable Diseases A Review by the Forum of International Respiratory Societies' Environmental Committee, Part 2: Air Pollution and Organ SystemsSocial psychiatry. Sozialpsychiatrie. Psychiatrie sociale, 2019
- The Association between Respiratory Infection and Air Pollution in the Setting of Air Quality Policy and Economic ChangeAnnals of the American Thoracic Society, 2018
- Global estimates of mortality associated with long-term exposure to outdoor fine particulate matterProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2018
- Wildfire smoke exposure and human health: Significant gaps in research for a growing public health issueEnvironmental Toxicology and Pharmacology, 2017
- Lung antioxidant and cytokine responses to coarse and fine particulate matter from the great California wildfires of 2008Inhalation Toxicology, 2010
- Mucociliary and long-term particle clearance in the airways of healthy nonsmoker subjectsJournal of Applied Physiology, 2004