Do environmental pollutants carrier to COVID-19 pandemic? A cross-sectional analysis

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 29; no. 12; pp. 17530 - 17543
• Main Authors: Shamsi, Salman, Zaman, Khalid, Usman, Bushra, Nassani, Abdelmohsen A., Haffar, Mohamed, Abro, Muhammad Moinuddin Qazi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.03.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Air Pollutants - analysis; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Carbon; Carbon dioxide; Carbon Dioxide - analysis; Carbon dioxide emissions; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 - epidemiology; COVID-19 infection; Cross-Sectional Studies; death; Disease transmission; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Emissions; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental policy; Environmental Pollutants; Environmental science; Fatalities; Greenhouse gases; Health care; health services; Humans; infrastructure; mortality; Nitrous oxide; Nitrous Oxide - analysis; Pandemics; Particulate matter; people; Pollutants; Research Article; SARS-CoV-2; Viral diseases; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; GHG emissions; COVID-19 pandemic; Cross-country study; GLM approach; Nitrous oxide emissions; Carbon emissions
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-17004-5

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a highly transmitted disease that spreads all over the globe in a short period. Environmental pollutants are considered one of the carriers to spread the COVID-19 pandemic through health damages. Carbon emissions, PM2.5 emissions, nitrous oxide emissions, GHG, and other GHG emissions are mainly judged separately in the earlier studies in different economic settings. The study hypothesizes that environmental pollutants adversely affect healthcare outcomes, likely to infected people by contagious diseases, including coronavirus cases. The subject matter is vital to analyze the preventive healthcare theory by using different environmental pollutants on the COVID-19 factors: total infected cases, total death cases, and case fatality ratio, in a large cross-section of 119 countries. The study employed the generalized least square (GLS) method for robust inferences. The results show that GHG and CO2 emissions are critical factors likely to increase total coronavirus cases and death rates. On the other hand, nitrous oxide, carbon, and transport emissions increase the case fatality ratio through healthcare damages. The study concludes that stringent environmental policies and improving healthcare infrastructure can control coronavirus cases across countries.