The number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 was lower in cities with more green areas and a lower rate of air pollution, according to a study published in the journal Environmental Research.
The research was carried out by the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (SIMA) in eight Spanish and ten Italian cities, all of them with more than half a million inhabitants, according to a statement from the UCM.
Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, Malaga, Las Palmas and Bilbao were the cities selected in the case of Spain, while in the case of Italy they were Rome, Bologna, Catania, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Turin and Venice.
The number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths due to Covid19 was lower in cities with more green areas and a lower rate of air pollution, according to a study https://t.co/2E7wiGkSl6
– EFEverde (@EFEverde) September 1, 2022
According to Spanish data, in 2021 each increase of 1 square kilometer of urban green areas per 100,000 inhabitants prevented up to 7 infections, 1 hospitalization and 35 deaths.
In the case of air pollution, its effect “is even more significant”, since each increase of one microgram of particulate matter 2.5 -particles suspended in the air with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns- for every 100,000 inhabitants produced 22 additional infections, 1 more hospitalization, and 243 preventable deaths.
This is “further proof that the environment directly and significantly affects our state of health”, assured the dean of the UCM Faculty of Medicine, Javier Arias.
The dean has also urged the authorities to take into account that increasing green areas in cities and reducing their pollution makes a “substantial difference” for public health in the face of “current and future threats to human health”.
