Environmental factors and their impact on the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in numerous cases of illness and death worldwide. Research has shown that there are associations between transmission, as well as the severity of SARS-CoV‑2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) infections, and various environmental factors. For example, air pollution with particulate matter is thought to play a crucial role, and both climatic and geographical aspects must be considered. Furthermore, environmental conditions such as industry and urban lifestyle have a significant impact on air quality and thus on health aspects of the population. In this regard, other factors such as chemicals, microplastics, and diet also critically impact health, including respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how closely health and the environment are linked. This review discusses the impact of environmental factors on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: Air pollution; Climate; Microplastics; Nutrition; SARS-CoV‑2.

Fig. 1

Environmental factors and their impact on health aspects and the spread and severity of SARS-CoV‑2. Environmental factors such as urban lifestyle, industrial pollution, mobility and transportation, geographic/climatic conditions, chemicals, microplastics, and nutrition have important influences on health aspects and can cause or exacerbate neurocognitive, upper respiratory tract, pulmonary, cardiovascular, liver, and gastrointestinal diseases. Furthermore, environmental factors influence the spread of SARS-CoV‑2, and the listed effects on preexisting diseases have a decisive influence on the severity of the disease course. This illustrates the critical influence of environmental factors on the COVID-19 pandemic. (Figure created with BioRender.com)