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. 2023;20(3):2869-2882.
doi: 10.1007/s13762-022-04190-z. Epub 2022 May 4.

Air pollution and meteorological variables' effects on COVID-19 first and second waves in Spain

J Bañuelos Gimeno  1   2 , A Blanco  1 , J Díaz  1 , C Linares  1 , J A López  1 , M A Navas  1 , G Sánchez-Martínez  3 , Y Luna  4 , B Hervella  4 , F Belda  4 , D R Culqui  1
Affiliations

Air pollution and meteorological variables' effects on COVID-19 first and second waves in Spain

J Bañuelos Gimeno et al. Int J Environ Sci Technol (Tehran). 2023.

Abstract

The aim of this research is to study the influence of atmospheric pollutants and meteorological variables on the incidence rate of COVID-19 and the rate of hospital admissions due to COVID-19 during the first and second waves in nine Spanish provinces. Numerous studies analyze the effect of environmental and pollution variables separately, but few that include them in the same analysis together, and even fewer that compare their effects between the first and second waves of the virus. This study was conducted in nine of 52 Spanish provinces, using generalized linear models with Poisson link between levels of PM10, NO2 and O3 (independent variables) and maximum temperature and absolute humidity and the rates of incidence and hospital admissions of COVID-19 (dependent variables), establishing a series of significant lags. Using the estimators obtained from the significant multivariate models, the relative risks associated with these variables were calculated for increases of 10 µg/m3 for pollutants, 1 °C for temperature and 1 g/m3 for humidity. The results suggest that NO2 has a greater association than the other air pollution variables and the meteorological variables. There was a greater association with O3 in the first wave and with NO2 in the second. Pollutants showed a homogeneous distribution across the country. We conclude that, compared to other air pollutants and meteorological variables, NO2 is a protagonist that may modulate the incidence and severity of COVID-19, though preventive public health measures such as masking and hand washing are still very important.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13762-022-04190-z.

Keywords: Atmospheric pollution; COVID-19; Hospital admissions rate; Incidence rate; Meteorological variables; Time series.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interestThe researchers declare that they have no competing interest within the last 3 years of beginning the work (conducting the research and preparing the work for submission). Furthermore, the authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Maps of air pollutants (μg/m3) associated with the rate of incidence of COVID-19 (TIC) in provinces in Spain (*) from Feb., 1 through May 31, 2020 and Jun., 1 through November 30, 2020. Tertiles in natural breack
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Maps of atmospheric variables associated with the rate of incidence of COVID-19 (TIC) in provinces in Spain (*) from Feb., 1 through May 31, 2020 and Jun., 1 through November 30, 2020. Tertiles in natural breack
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Maps of air pollutants (μg/m3) associated with the rate of hospital admissions of COVID-19 (TIHC) in provinces in Spain (*) from Feb., 1 through May 31, 2020 and Jun., 1 through November 30, 2020. Tertiles in natural breack
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Maps of atmospheric variables associated with the rate of hospital admissions of COVID-19 (TIC) in provinces in Spain (*) from Feb., 1 through May 31, 2020 and Jun., 1 through November 30, 2020. Tertiles in natural breack
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