Long-term exposure to air pollutant concentrations is known to cause chronic lung
inflammation, a condition that may promote increased severity of COVID-19 syndrome
caused by the novel coronavirus. In this paper, we empirically investigate the ecologic
association between long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) concentration and
excess deaths in the first quarter of 2020 in municipalities of Northern Italian. The study
accounts for potentially spatial confounding factors related to urbanization that may have
influenced the spreading of the novel coronavirus. Our epidemiological analysis uses
geographical information (e.g., municipalities) and Poisson regression to assess whether
both ambient PM concentration and excess mortality have a similar spatial distribution.
Preliminary evidence confirms the hypothesis and suggests a positive association of ambient
PM on excess mortality in Northern Italy

Published Jun 1, 2020

Coker, E.S., Cavalli, L., Fabrizi, E. et al. The Effects of Air Pollution on COVID-19 Related Mortality in Northern Italy. Environ Resource Econ 76, 611–634 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-020-00486-1