One Of Europe's Most Polluted Areas Accounts For Most Of Italy's 'Corona Death': The Po Valley

[BearWithMe]

What about cultural customs of Italy? Kissing on each cheek when seeing someone and doing the same when you leave someone, especially the old ones would be kissed by all other ages.
Imagine an old person gets 5 persons to visit one day that means 20 kisses.
Does this way of sure spreading of virus does not play a role?

Some nations do a lot of cheek kissing while others do not to this at all.

Do you think they do that so much more in Lombardy than in Sicilia or Tuscany?

 

[Kunstruct]

Do you think they do that so much more in Lombardy than in Sicilia or Tuscany?

There can be more kissing in Sicily but if the virus was not there 1 month ago it simply does not matter for the elderly as a serious means of spreading.
So it is pointless to make a comparison and ignoring where the virus was initially, also I am talking about the elders, not every and each person possible, since the elders are the ones dying.

If Lombardy had much more infected younger people roaming around, yes the cultural custom is a means of spreading the disease with the older ones. If Sicily kisses the same amount and has no infected persons to spread it around does not matter, 1 months ago.
Not to mention Lombardy has a ton of migrants and people from the EU countries working there, not Sicily.

By now we can assume tons of kissing is not happening anymore in any region.

 

[Whichway?]

Could be some very interesting lessons from this virus regarding pollution and crowding. Capitalism and economics has us making compromises all the time which are no good for our health. Those add up over time, and stressors like this find those weaknessses.

 

[Kunstruct]

It is interesting that when it comes to HIV people are very careful, yet with anything else they mostly careless.
The fact that majority of populations of south america died of viruses is never talked about unless there is a direct intent to show the "villainy of Europeans".

 

[Pompadour]

Indeed air pollution is bad , what a surprise !
covid-pm

 

[BearWithMe]

Indeed air pollution is bad , what a surprise !
covid-pm

This is interesting, because anything over 9 μg/m3 PM2.5 is considered high polution/high risk for COVID infection in this paper. In most parts of Europe (with the exception of Great Britan and Scandinavia), we can only dream of such numbers. I live in one of the less poluted countries and my PM2.5 meter rarely goes under 25 μg/m3 in recent years.

We should be hit by the virus much harder than US, but... we are not.

Not to mention India and some parts of the Africa, where the average PM2.5 numbers are in triple digits.

 

[BearWithMe]

These are current weekly averages in Europe, and this was actually exceptionally good week polution-wise, because the transportation and manufacturing was greatly reduced because of the lockdown.

 

[Kratos]

Italy, iran, wuhan, uk and nyc got hit hard due to pollution because a lack of vitamin d in the citizens, high vitamin d levels protect against viruses.

 

[David PS]

Not to go too far afield on this thread, but it seems pollution may be a more significant factor than the warm weather here in parts of the US.
Louisiana cancer-ridden county known for toxic air pollution tops NYC for highest coronavirus death rate

Edit - This was just to buttress the idea that air quality and its long term health effects may be the issue in Italy.

 

[RealNeat]

Not to go too far afield on this thread, but it seems pollution may be a more significant factor than the warm weather here in parts of the US.
Louisiana cancer-ridden county known for toxic air pollution tops NYC for highest coronavirus death rate

Edit - This was just to buttress the idea that air quality and its long term health effects may be the issue in Italy.

And you know the drinking junk food orgy fest known as Mardi Gras

 

[Pompadour]

These are current weekly averages in Europe,

Could you please provide a link to this info? I would like to check the place where i live

 

[BearWithMe]

Could you please provide a link to this info? I would like to check the place where i live

PurpleAir.com

 

[David PS]

Could you please provide a link to this info? I would like to check the place where i live

You might also try Air Pollution in Germany: Real-time Air Quality Index Visual Map

 

[Pompadour]

@JanP @David PS thank you!

 

[haidut]

The Po Valley in the North of Italy is one of the most polluted areas in Europe. There is not much wind (which is needed to disperse the dangerous micro particles), and in winter there is temperature inversion which traps air pollution to the ground. Source of the pollution is traffic, domestic heating, industry and animal waste.

88 % of the 'corona dead' in Italy were reported alone in the regions Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna. The regions account for about 24 % of the population in Italy.

About 94 % of the 'corona dead' in Italy were reported in the regions Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto and Piedmont. The population accounts for about 39 % of the population in Italy.

View attachment 16964

population numbers from Wikipedia
Corana death numbers from statistica.com

View attachment 16963

Italy: Coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths by region 2020 | Statista


Milan has second worst smog in Europe – WHO

Milan is the capital city of the Lombardy. Turin is the capital city of Piedmont.

'We breathe in poison': Why the Po Valley is one of the most polluted places in Italy

@LLight: The article mentions that over half of the Italian pig production is located in the Po Valley.





Air pollution hotspots in Europe

There is an actual study confirming the link between heavy pollution in Italy and COVID-19 mortality rates.
Can atmospheric pollution be considered a co-factor in extremely high level of SARS-CoV-2 lethality in Northern Italy? - ScienceDirect

@tankasnowgod

 

[Peater Piper]

Has the air quality become worse this year than in previous years (I'm not sure how to check past air statistics)? I would assume poor air quality would also be a major risk factor when dealing with influenza. Italy's excess mortality rate is now well beyond the previous highest point in the past four years.

 

[David PS]

The maps in this Italian infographic strongly suggests that it is the population density in Italy that accounts for the distribution of coronavirus deaths. The infographic is a visual display; no Italian skills are needed. Pollution is just a side effect of population density.

https://www.epicentro.iss.it/coronavirus/bollettino/Infografica_12aprile ITA.pdf

Another side effect of population density is the need to use mass transit. Coincidently, NYC has the largest mass transit system and no requirement for its passengers to use gloves and masks.
Was Crowded Mass Transport Cars In NYC The Cause Of Their Epidemic?

Edit: Here is the English language version of the infographic
https://www.epicentro.iss.it/en/coronavirus/bollettino/Infografica_12aprile ENG.pdf

 

[S.Seneff]

Has the air quality become worse this year than in previous years (I'm not sure how to check past air statistics)? I would assume poor air quality would also be a major risk factor when dealing with influenza. Italy's excess mortality rate is now well beyond the previous highest point in the past four years.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.07.20057216v1
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.05.20054502v1

 

[David PS]

I am not seeing a big variation in air quality to support the idea that air pollution is the prime suspect.
Air Pollution in Europe: Real-time Air Quality Index Visual Map
Air Pollution in North America: Real-time Air Quality Index Visual Map

 

[David PS]

Just to support the idea that pollution is a red herring, below is a google translated section from
https://www.epicentro.iss.it/coronavirus/bollettino/Report-COVID-2019_17_marzo-v2.pdf

Table 1 presents the most common pre-existing chronic pathologies (diagnosed before contracting infection) in deceased patients. This figure was obtained in 355/2003 deaths (17.7% of the sample total). The average number of pathologies observed in this population is 2.7 (median 2, Deviation Standard 1.6). Overall, 3 patients (0.8% of the sample) had 0 pathologies, 8 9 (25.1%) had 1 pathology, 91 had 2 pathologies (25.6%) and 172 (48.5%) had 3 or more pathologies

Table 1. Most common diseases observed in patients who died as a result of COVID-2019 infection

Pathologies....................N.......................%
Ischemic heart disease ........33............................0
Atrial fibrillation ................87 ...........................24.5
Stroke .................................34 .............................9.6
Arterial hypertension ........270 ..........................76.1
Diabetes mellitus...............126........................... 35.5
Dementia ............................24 .............................6.8
COPD .................................47 ...........................13.2
Active cancer in the past 5 years 72...................20.3
Chronic liver disease ..........11 ............................3.1
Chronic renal failure ..........64 ...........................18.0
Number of pathologies
0 diseases ..........................3 ..............................0.8
1 diseases ........................89 .............................25.1
2 diseases ........................91 .............................25.6
3 or more pathologies .....172 ...........................48.5

Edit - English version of the report
https://www.epicentro.iss.it/en/coronavirus/bollettino/Report-COVID-2019_9_april_2020.pdf