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

Giraffe

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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.

Po Valley.GIF

population numbers from Wikipedia
Corana death numbers from statistica.com


corona Italy by region.GIF


Italy: Coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths by region 2020 | Statista
As of March 11, 2020, 827 deaths were reported by the authorities, 617 in the region of Lombardy, 113 in the region of Emilia-Romagna, and 29 in the region of Veneto, the regions mostly hit.

Milan has second worst smog in Europe – WHO
A report by the World Health Organisation has placed Milan just behind Turin and just before Naples as the three European cities with the worst levels of atmospheric pollution.
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.

The Emilia-Romagna region is located in the southwest part of the Po valley basin, a densely populated and heavily industrialized area, where meteorological conditions, due to the low wind intensity, cause the stagnation of the chemical air mass, associated with peakpollution episodes of PM during the winter and high level of ozone during the summer.source

The Veneto region (NE Italy) lies in the eastern part of the Po Valley, a European hotspot for air pollution. source

Air pollution hotspots in Europe
 
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tankasnowgod

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I've really enjoyed your posts on this. They are top notch.

Between Po Valley and Wuhan, this means about 80% of COVID-19 deaths came from two areas with heavy air pollution.
 

BearWithMe

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Last edited:

tankasnowgod

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Pollution in Northern Italy is nothing compared to everywhere in Poland, which is by far the most polluted country in Europe. If there is any connection between air pollution and Covid 19 deaths then Poles should be dropping like flies.
https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/europe-50-most-polluted-1376x1701.png

This is a complete fallacy. It's no different than concluding that the season has no effect on this disease, since Alaska hasn't been hit very hard, and they have the harshest winter.

The fact that you can find a heavily polluted area that hasn't had many serious COVID 19 cases yet (and it's been less than four months since there has been any test or awareness of it) doesn't mean that there is no connection. The fact remains that 80% of cases and deaths come from two areas (so far) that have really heavy air pollution. It might suggest that Poland would have more serious cases if it starts to spread there.

And to your last point, no one is really dropping like flies, anywhere. About 6,000 deaths over three and a half months from COVID 19. About 4 million people die every month worldwide, so 6,000 is still a tiny fraction of a percent of the 14 Million people that have died since December 1st.
 

BearWithMe

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Oh, and one local anecdote - I'm in Czech Republic at the moment. There are 344 confirmed cases today and three of them are in life threatening condition.

Each of them is completely isolated case, but all three of them are taxi drivers. Here in Czech Republic, taxi drivers are known for removing the DPF filters from their diesel cars to save money on maintenance.

They are spending long hours daily in cars churning out tons of toxic particulate matter, go figure out...
 
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Oh, and one local anecdote - I'm in Czech Republic at the moment. There are 344 confirmed cases today and three of them are in life threatening condition.

Each of them is completely isolated case, but all three of them are taxi drivers. Here in Czech Republic, taxi drivers are known for removing the DPF filters from their diesel cars to save money on maintenance.

They are spending long hours daily in cars churning out tons of toxic particulate matter, go figure out...
Diesels fumes are pure poison for the lungs.
 

Jam

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Why pollution by Pm10 can facilitate the spread of the virus
Translation


"The correlations come to a head: pollution, especially atmospheric pollution, may have prepared the ground for Coronavirus and its spread. At least the data show a relationship between the exceedances of the legal limits for Pm10 and the number of cases infected by Covid-19."
 

tara

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About 6,000 deaths over three and a half months from COVID 19.
Current numbers are about 10 000 deaths worldwide attributed to covid-19.
About half of them in the last 8 days.
COVID-19 deaths and cases: how do sources compare?
If the trend were to continue without serious interruption, it doesn't have to double very many times to be a much bigger number.
At that rate, in less than 2 months there would be more than 1 000 000 deaths. I'm not saying that will necessarily happen, because various countries are taking preventive measures, and learning more about what may help, and becoming more prepared.

They are spending long hours daily in cars churning out tons of toxic particulate matter, go figure out...
And presumably being exposed to whatever's going around - unfortunate combination for them.
 

tankasnowgod

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Current numbers are about 10 000 deaths worldwide attributed to covid-19.
About half of them in the last 8 days.
COVID-19 deaths and cases: how do sources compare?
If the trend were to continue without serious interruption, it doesn't have to double very many times to be a much bigger number.
At that rate, in less than 2 months there would be more than 1 000 000 deaths. I'm not saying that will necessarily happen, because various countries are taking preventive measures, and learning more about what may help, and becoming more prepared.

Yes, and 256 Million after 4 months.
And 65 Billion after 6 months.
And 16.7 Trillion after 8 months.

Not saying all that will happen, but that's the trend. Can we thank preventative measures to save over 16 Trillion lives?

You aren't taking into consideration that people die every day. Worldwide, about 136,986 people die every day. Over the course of 3 and half months, about 15 Million. Is the disease getting more severe as we move into spring months (which would go against everything we know about diseases in general), or is it possibly an artifact of greater testing, or people being classified as COVID 19 deaths when they were suffering from underlying conditions that may have been the true cause of death. Remember, in the first few months, testing was only in China, focused on about 1.34 Billion People (truthfully, smaller than that, focusing mainly on the city of Wuhan). Now, the sample size is growing, and looking at 7+ Billion People.

And don't forget, these unprecedented and draconian procedures will have their own cost, both financial and health wise. Say we do "Flatten The Curve," and only 5,000 more people die, with it being attributed to COVID 19, but over all of 2020, suicides in the US alone double, jumping up from about 45,000 to 90,000, with medical experts attributing the two main causes to 1. Extended Social Isolation and 2. Financial Stress from the downturn in the economy. Were those extra 45,000 deaths worth whatever the theoretical number of COVID 19 deaths there would be? Is that a trade you feel comfortable making, or leaving in the hands of government officials?
 

Kunstruct

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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.
 

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