Analysing role of airborne particulate matter in abetting SARS-CoV-2 outbreak for scheming regional pandemic regulatory modalities

Pradeep Bhadola; Vishal Chaudhary; Kalaimani Markandan; Rishi Kumar Talreja; Sumit Aggarwal; Kuldeep Nigam; Mohammad Tahir; Ajeet Kaushik; Sarvesh Rustagi; Mohammad Khalid

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2023.116646

Analysing role of airborne particulate matter in abetting SARS-CoV-2 outbreak for scheming regional pandemic regulatory modalities

Environ Res. 2023 Nov 1;236(Pt 1):116646. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116646. Epub 2023 Jul 20.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Theoretical Physics & Natural Philosophy, Mahidol University, Nakhonsawan 60130, Thailand.
² Department of Physics, Bhagini Nivedita College, University of Delhi, Delhi 110072, India. Electronic address: Chaudhary00vishal@gmail.com.
³ Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Technology and Built Environment, UCSI University, Cheras 56000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
⁴ Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi 110029, India.
⁵ Division of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases (ECD), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-Headquaters, New Delhi 110029, India.
⁶ Department of Computing, University of Turku, FI-20014, Turun Yliopisto, Finland.
⁷ NanoBio Tech Laboratory, Department of Environmental Engineering, Florida Polytechnic University, Lakeland, FL, 33805, USA; School of Engineering, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.
⁸ School of Applied and Life Sciences, Uttaranchal University, Dehradun, Uttrakhand, India.
⁹ Sunway Centre for Electrochemical Energy and Sustainable Technology (SCEEST), School of Engineering and Technology, Sunway University, No. 5, Jalan University, Bandar Sunway, 47500, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia; Division of Research and Development, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, 144411, Punjab, India; School of Engineering and Technology, Sharda University, Greater Noida, 201310, India. Electronic address: khalids@sunway.edu.my.

PMID: 37481054
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116646

Abstract

The mutating SARS-CoV-2 necessitates gauging the role of airborne particulate matter in the COVID-19 outbreak for designing area-specific regulation modalities based on the environmental state-of-affair. To scheme the protocols, the hotspots of air pollutants such as PM_2.5, PM₁₀, NH₃, NO, NO₂, SO₂, and and environmental factors including relative humidity (RH), and temperature, along with COVID-19 cases and mortality from January 2020 till December 2020 from 29 different ground monitoring stations spanning Delhi, are mapped. Spearman correlation coefficients show a positive relationship between SARS-COV-2 with particulate matter (PM_2.5 with r > 0.36 and PM10 with r > 0.31 and p-value <0·001). Besides, SARS-COV-2 transmission showed a substantial correlation with NH₃ (r = 0.41), NO2 (r = 0.36), and NO (r = 0.35) with a p-value <0.001, which is highly indicative of their role in SARS-CoV-2 transmission. These outcomes are associated with the source of PM and its constituent trace elements to understand their overtone with COVID-19. This strongly validates temporal and spatial variation in COVID-19 dependence on air pollutants as well as on environmental factors. Besides, the bottlenecks of missing latent data, monotonous dependence of variables, and the role air pollutants with secondary environmental variables are discussed. The analysis set the foundation for strategizing regional-based modalities considering environmental variables (i.e., pollutant concentration, relative humidity, temperature) as well as urban and transportation planning for efficient control and handling of future public health emergencies.

Keywords: Airborne particulate matter; COVID-19; Correlation analysis; One health; Pandemic management.