The report presents biological hypotheses how viral diseases of the respiratory tract might be linked to ambient air pollution exposure. Moreover, it gives a comprehensive overview of the literature on this topic published up to the end of October 2020, including the first COVID-19 wave. It addresses in detail methodological considerations for these publications such as study designs, adjustment for confounders, the choice of lags in short-term studies and the study quality.

The report can be downloaded here.

The report, based on a systematic literature review and meta-analysis, includes more than 65.000.000 cases and 264.000 deaths from five continents. It provides a first quantitative assessment of the association between air pollution and COVID-19. In addition, the included literature was scanned for vulnerable populations. Finally, it offers recommendations for future studies on this topic.

The report was funded by the European Climate Foundation (Grant Number G-2006-60636).

The authors of the report were Dr. Regina Pickford (Working Group “Exposomics”), Margarethe Woeckel (Working Group "Environmental Risks"), Dr. Alexandra Schneider, Head of the Working Group “Environmental Risks”) and Prof. Annette Peters, Director of the Institute of Epidemiology.