![]() Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University. “When you look at each individual county, there’s the possibility that there are other factors, such as a lot of dust, that could also be contributing to the rise,” said a co-author, Kevin Josey, a postdoctoral research fellow in the biostatistics department at the T.H. The researchers estimated that wildfire smoke accounted for a nearly 20 percent increase in Covid-19 cases in each county. Butte County, California - where the Dixie Fire is raging - and Whitman County, Washington, had the sharpest spikes in Covid-19 cases following wildfire smoke pollution. ![]() ![]() to be a lot more aware of this because there are things we can do in terms of public preparedness in the community to allow people to escape smoke during wildfire events.Some areas were covered in wildfire smoke for nearly one-third of the days from March to December. "We would love public health officials across the U.S. "We believe that our study greatly strengthens the evidence that wildfire smoke can enhance the spread of SARS-CoV-2," Elhanan said. The Reno researchers say that policymakers should consider lowering the recommended healthy limit of PM2.5 in areas with high COVID-19 cases, establish "clean air" shelters with social distancing for when air quality becomes poor and ensure that there are enough respirators in areas that have a high risk of wildfires. In addition, a study from University of British Columbia researchers in June found that exposure to PM2.5 can make COVID-19 symptoms more severe. researchers last August found that long-term exposure to PM2.5 "renders a population more susceptible to COVID-19." Researchers from Switzerland reported last November that high levels of PM2.5 in European cities due to dust storms from the Sahara Desert were also linked with higher COVID-19 cases. This study adds to the growing body of research linking high concentrations of fine particulate matter with COVID-19. Poor air quality could encourage people to gather indoors rather than outdoors and increase the spread of the virus that way. However, the researchers also suggest that there may be non-biological factors. The particles themselves may also be potentially able to carry the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the researchers say. Previous studies have demonstrated that exposure to PM2.5 can induce cellular changes, which could negatively affect immune response and make COVID-19 infection easier. The researchers suggest that the increased infectivity from the wildfire smoke may be due to the way exposure to PM2.5 affects the human body. "We are located in an intermountain valley that restricts the dispersion of pollutants and possibly increases the magnitude of exposure, which makes it even more important for us to understand smoke impacts on human health." "We had a unique situation here in Reno last year where we were exposed to wildfire smoke more often than many other areas, including the Bay Area," co-lead author Gai Elhanan in a news release. ![]() The northern Nevada city saw 43 days of elevated PM2.5, levels while the San Francisco Bay Area only saw 26 days. In 2020, Reno saw elevated levels of PM2.5 for a much longer period of time than most urban areas in the western U.S., making the city an ideal place for the study. The researchers calculated that a 10-microgram-per-cubic-metre increase in the 7-day average PM2.5 concentration was associated with a 6.3 per cent increase in the COVID-19 positivity rate. ![]() Sign up here to receive The Climate Barometer, delivering climate and environmental news to your inbox every week.Newsletter sign-up: Get The COVID-19 Brief sent to your inbox. ![]()
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