The exponential surge of COVID-19 cases in India, sent shockwaves across the globe and has led to a search for an explanation for it. Researchers and scientists have investigated several factors including presence of multiple variants and underinvestment in the public health system. The causes are varied, but amongst all the factors, air pollution plays a rather insidious role. 

Pollution levels peak every year during the winters, when agricultural waste burning, fumes from vehicles, industries and brick kilns combine with smoke from firecrackers during diwali, to create a toxic soup. Scientists, epidemiologists and virologists have also projected that COVID19 pandemic’s third wave could hit India during October. Experts warn that the bad air could worsen the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the country. 

The winter months could prove to be rather ominous for India.

Based on scientific research available, researchers have established a link between exposure to polluted air and COVID-19 and to this regard, India’s cities are among the most polluted in the world.

As per IQAir, a Swiss air technology company, twenty-two of the world’s 30 most polluted cities are in India, with Delhi being ranked the most polluted capital city globally. Studies have been conducted to understand the relationship between air pollution and COVID-19 especially in India. As per Centre for Science and ENvironment in Delhi, Indian cities stand vulnerable to COVID-19 owing to long term exposure to bad quality air. According to a paper, ‘Regional and global contributions of air pollution to risk of death from COVID-19’ published in the journal Cardiovascular Research, chronic exposure to particulate matter in air is directly linked to an average 15% of COVID-19 related deaths globally.  The research related to India is limited and in early stages, however, based on a preliminary paper, ‘The Causal Effects of Long-Term PM2.5 Exposure on COVID-19 in India’ published by the World Bank, 1% increase in long-term exposure to the particulate matter present in the air leads to 5.7% increase in COVID-19 related deaths in India.

Air pollution plays two equally insidious roles during the pandemic. First, it weakens the immune system, making people more susceptible to COVID-19 infection. Second, the PM 2.5 particles in the atmosphere act as carriers for the virus which offers an opportunity for the virus to linger longer in the environment. As per research conducted by the School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University in China, during the beginning of the pandemic more than 500 cases were counted in 20 Indian cities where temperature and humidity created a fertile environment for the virus to thrive. The research further stated that these COVID-19 cases were clustered at temperature and humidity levels ranging between 27-32 degrees celsius and 25%-45% respectively. The fact that the city of Delhi falls under this temperature range coupled with the bad quality of air could have aided the unstoppable proliferation of the coronavirus during the second wave of the pandemic. 

The bad quality of air in India has already compromised the lungs of its people. As per a study, “Health and economic impact of air pollution in the states of India” published by The Lancet, Asthma has been steadily rising as a disease burden since 1990, at the same time as India’s air pollution figures have become the worst in the world. The study further states that even before the pandemic, a landmark global study found that in 2019 alone, 1.67 million deaths were attributable to air pollution, nearly 18% of all deaths in India. Now with studies confirming that COVID-19 virus is potentially airborne, air pollution presents itself as an unlikely and unsuspecting ally for the pandemic to spread faster.

This double threat of poor air quality and exposure to the virus will most certainly further aggravate the already strained public health care structure in India. The health effects of poor air quality are well-known and are significantly worse in vulnerable populations including extremes of age, pregnant women and those with pre-existing comorbidities. Chronic exposure to deteriorating air quality every year results in compromised lung function in exposed populations. These individuals are therefore likely to be more vulnerable in a pandemic. 

Majority of scientific consensus emphasizes improving air quality as an efficient means to reduce the impacts of the pandemic. It must be noted that when lockdowns were imposed in India, it brought unexpected relief from air pollution with satellite data reporting 15% reduction in nitrogen-dioxide concentration levels around the time of the shutdown and this was largely due to halted industries and vehicular emissions. It is important that we understand this dynamic, for it explains one of the factors that worsened the effects of the pandemic, and also offers an opportunity to consider climate change and urgent action required to mitigate it. 

Playing in the field are two players – air pollution and COVID-19, both products of unregulated actions of humans against nature. Air pollution is caused due to unabated industrialisation and developmental activities, whereas, COVID-19 is a zoonosis emerged owing to unregulated international trade of exotic animals, and also encroachment of wild habitats by humans. Climate change as an issue is not a new one and it grabbed newsheadlines few years back with the climate youth movement and climate action urgency. However, with the outbreak of COVID-19, the debate around it and the commonalities between both the crises and their converging effects, gained momentum and has called for urgent action and awareness.

COVID-19 has offered a perfect opportunity to the countries across the globe to take a step back and formulate developmental policies that are sustainable and environment friendly. Nature needs to be preserved for or multiple complementary objectives, because these objectives safeguard life as we know it.