COPD and COVID

 This blog has periodically inveighed against small particulate air pollution, as our many longpterm readers know well.   Two things have not been reported on in any particular fashion, however, that upon study require some comment.

First, the common 'concern' for health departments and air pollution monitoring stations, along with abatement technologies, is 2.5 micron particulate matter vs. the more commonly monitored and controlled 10 micron 'rocks.   Almost no agency monitors for smaller material, even though the physiology of humans tends to say it takes something smaller than 1 micron to impact the lungs.  Large materiasl are filtered usually by gravity (the bigger 'rocks' don't even get to the nasal passages or the pharanz; small particulates in the 2 to 4 micron size usually lodge in the trachea.  Below 2 microns can enter the lung passages, but only material less than 1 micron reach into the deep lung.  Such particles are often 'trapped' there; particles less than about 0.2 microns remain mobile and are usually exhaled.

Unfortunately, both monitoring and control techniques get more difficult for smaller sizes.  Thus, the measuring tools seldom report on concentrations of 1 micron particle density, and even if noted, there are few control technologies available for amelioration.   

Now, consider one of the long-observed but strikingly under-reported phenomena--inert small (1 micron) particulates in a toxic gaseous environment may have a toxic molecule adhere to the particle, and travel with it into the deep lung, where the particle lodges and the toxic molecule remains to do damage.   This is tailor-made for NO2, NO3, or SO2-rich atmospheres to send such molecules deep into the lung.  Consider that if the molecule is not bound to the particulate matter, it may easily enter the lung and 'wash' back out (thse molecules are less than one one-thousandth the size of the particle), but if it is captive to the particle, it remains in situ, ready to wreak a small, localized 'ulcer',

One US resaerch group, at Washington University in St. Louis, has lstudied the presence and impact of 1 micron particulate matter for the past 25 years, and their findings are significant, particularly for the West and Rocky Mountain regions.   This map lacks the detailed definition that I prefer to illustrate, but it certainly highlights the California, Oregon, Idaho, New Mexico and Texas hotspots.

Map shows highest concentration of tiny, toxic air particles

https://www.newsweek.com/air-pollution-pm1-submicron-usa-map-2085962

If we go deeper, for example in California, the picture for the 58 counties is quite distinct, especially for the Central Valley with air trapped by the Sierra Nevada mountain range--with air considerably dirtier than Los Angeles county or the Bay area.

2.5 micron particulate levels in Californian counties

https://www.kidsdata.org/topic/524/air-particulate/map#loct=3&fmt=2751&tf=164&center=-13325098.893387,4509031.392449&zoom=1

For a world where COPD is today almost always the third or fourth leading killer in nations all over the world, you'd think that this would be deeply studied and understood.   Instead, the AMA continues, as does the American Lung Association, to brand COPD as a 'smoker's disease' and avoid as much as possible doing serious research for either monitoring or control methodologies.  Okay, you've heard this theme from me now for a decade, and my initial discovery of it dates back to 1970 to the chagrin then of the new Clean Act for America.  So much for 'truth' by our leaders.

BUT, here's the kicker.  And I am amazed at myself for not realizing this earlier.  COVID is also a virulant killer, via lung congestion.  And early on, a few doctors surmises that COVID impact was higher on folk already burdened by COPD, but the studies were anecdotal and episodic.  Now, we could if desired, map the correlation co-efficients using big data extractions and geospatial mapping.   Consider for example the Deaths/100K plot for COVID for California for three 2020 biweekly periods, and compare this map by county to the one above for 1 micron concentration of particulates.

These are not 'one-to-one' correlation maps, but they are certainly suggestive.   More striking as we look around America, there is clearly a pattern with ski resorts in high mountain valleys where high car travel and air layer inversions often combine during peak visitor time.   

I'd love to have good correlation maps for i micron pollution layers for America, by season.

Food for thought/