BY SARA SNEATH | Staff writer, New Orleans Advocate
LOUISIANA – Data released by the state Department of Health shows that pre-existing conditions such as diabetes and kidney disease are playing a major role in the death rate of coronavirus in Louisiana. But a growing body of research indicates that long-term exposure to air pollution can also be a factor.
A new nationwide study indicates that a small increase in air pollution leads to a 15% increase in the fatality rate from COVID-19. Researchers with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health examined air pollution and COVID-19 fatalities in about 3,000 counties in the U.S., adjusting for factors such as population density, number of tests performed and weather.
The researchers point to the need to enforce air pollution regulations amid the ongoing public health crisis.
“Based on our result, we anticipate a failure to do so can potentially increase the COVID-19 death toll and hospitalizations, further burdening our healthcare system and drawing resources away from COVID-19 patients,” the authors wrote.
Last week, a group of students from Loyola Law School sent a letter to Gov. John Bel Edwards asking him to crack down on air pollution in the state at least for the duration of the public health crisis. For now, federal and state environmental agencies have actually eased rules requiring industry to report air and water pollution amid the pandemic.
“While the timing of Carnival and the intimate and abundant social culture of New Orleans provide appealing theories for the initial dramatic increase in diagnoses, a major factor that has not been acknowledged is the markedly poor air quality in the state,” the letter said. “This vulnerability threatens to contribute to a daunting death rate in Southeast Louisiana that will outpace the rest of the country and devastate our communities.”
The group has not yet received a response from the governor’s office, said Loyola law student Kimberly Fanshier. “We’ll only be able to see how bad it’s making things if the worst-case scenario happens, which is really troubling,” she said.
The idea that air pollution increases the severity of respiratory viruses is not new. Researchers who studied the 2003 outbreak of SARS — another type of severe coronavirus — throughout different regions in China found that the risk of death from the virus in more polluted areas was nearly double that of less polluted regions.
That’s likely because exposure to certain air pollutants compromises lung function, therefore increasing the severity of symptoms and the rate of fatality, said Dr. Zuo-feng Zhang, a professor of epidemiology at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health and one of the authors of the SARS study. “We were a very early group to do this study,” he said. “Other studies that came later showed similar results.”
Not only does air pollution weaken lung function, it may also play a role in the transmission of the virus, Zhang said. He pointed to a recent analysis by researchers at several universities in Italy and the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine that examined the high coronavirus mortality rate in northern Italy, an area plagued by some of the worst air pollution in Europe.
The analysis, which has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, suggests coronavirus may actually be able to piggyback on airborne particulate matter, boosting the spread of the virus. “As already highlighted in previous studies, it is recommended to take into account (particulate matter) contribution and make policymakers aware of the need to take direct actions for pollution control,” the analysis concludes.
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Gregory Langley said the department had no information about the effect of pollution on the coronavirus. Officials with the state Department of Health did not say whether they are taking air pollution into consideration in their response to the pandemic.
Instead, the department issued a statement saying: “COVID-19 is a threat to every person in our state. There are confirmed cases in 61 out of 64 parishes. Each person should take mitigation efforts seriously and follow guidance to minimize the spread of this illness.”
Coronavirus disparity in Louisiana: About 70% of the victims are black, but why?
The state’s avoidance of the topic of air pollution is “par for the course,” said Beverly Wright, the executive director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. Wright noted that communities of color in the state are more likely to be exposed to air pollution, just as they are more likely to suffer from underlying health conditions that worsen the outcomes of the virus.
More than 70% of those who have died from the novel coronavirus in Louisiana so far have been black, the Edwards administration announced Monday. It’s a startling statistic, given that black people make up just 32% of the state population.
“The Louisiana health department paints this grim story for the survival rates of those with diabetes and never speaks to the fact that the people who have these underlying conditions have lived through all kinds of discrimination, lack of access and then chemical exposure at a much higher rate,” Wright said. “It’s no wonder our death rate is so high.”
CSWAB Acts to Support Louisiana Residents
Last month, CSWAB organized a national action supporting Louisiana’s announced intent to DENY an operating permit renewal for open air burning of hazardous waste at the Clean Harbors facility in Colfax. The 700-acre facility is one of the few remaining commercial sites in the U.S. that still uses open burning to treat hazardous waste. Clean Harbors Colfax burns and detonates more than 500,000 pounds of toxic reactive material in an open-air setting each year.
In a public notice issued earlier this year, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality stated its intent to deny a permit renewal because of Clean Harbors’ “failure to adequately consider alternatives to the continued open burning/open detonation of the waste treated at its Colfax facility.”
The national action supports local efforts by the Central Louisiana Coalition for a Clean and Healthy Environment to protect the health of area residents and the local environment by opposing the open air burning and detonation at Clean Harbors Colfax.
A final decision from Louisiana’s Department of Environmental Quality is currently pending.
References:
Air pollution Case Fatalities SARS China Cui et al 20 Nov 2003
Exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 mortality in the United States Wu et al April 2020
National Letter Calling for End to Toxic Burns in Colfax Louisiana CSWAB March 2020
PHOTOGRAPH: Smokestack plumes are bent over almost horizontal to the ground because of a stiff, brisk wind near the Sunshine Bridge on the east side of the Mississippi River. New Orleans Advocate staff photo by Bill Feig.