According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), human beings and nature have always lived in correlation, the environment provides countless resources and benefits that enable people to prosper. Factors related to the destructive and invasive action of human beings against nature boosted the spread of the organism that causes SARS-CoV-2. Air pollution is a factor generated by anthropic action, that is, it is a human factor that contributes not only to the oscillation of temperature and humidity, but also to the dispersion of COVID-19. In this way, the human factor chosen by us interferes with the spread of the virus with polluting actions in the atmosphere.
US researchers suggest that air pollution has significantly worsened the Covid-19 outbreak and led to more deaths than in unpolluted locations. In addition to predisposing people living with polluted air to respiratory diseases for decades, scientists have also suggested that air pollution particles may be acting as vehicles for viral transmission. These new findings could have a significant impact on how governments can manage the blockages in the coming months, as scientists say that improving air quality can play an important role in overcoming the pandemic.
From this, we seek to develop a low cost and biodegradable industrial filter that can be made quickly, in order to reduce the dispersion of pollutants and consequently the concentration and spread of the coronavirus in the air. Such a filter would reduce the lockdown time and allow a more immediate return to normality as well as avoiding a new wave of future coronavirus, since there is still no effective vaccine.
Initially we tried to correlate geographical factors that favor the spread of the virus and we found that the virus spreads more in extreme humidity (below 20% and above 80%) and at low temperatures. We use data from NASA to assess temperature and humidity from different locations globally and nationally (NASA / GISS). Next, we found that one of the main factors that influences air humidity and local temperature is air pollution. In this way, we imagine that pollution could indirectly interfere in the spread of the virus, by changing the temperature and humidity. We found that this fact was true, but not only that; the pollution itself acts as a virus-dispersing agent. These adhere to polluting particles that are easily dispersed in the air; in this way, the polluting particles facilitate the dispersion and spread of SARS-COV-2.
Then came the idea of creating a filter that was able to reduce pollution, thereby reducing the spread of the virus. In this context, we analyzed the PLCL as a biopolymer that would meet our needs. Still using scientific databases, such as NCBI and Science direct, we discovered the possibility of associating this polymer with a biocidal agent, in this case silver nanoparticles. In this way, we built the idea of an air filter that not only reduces air pollution, which is a coronavirus dispersing agent, but also has a biocidal action on this pandemic agent.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142961204009263
Samberg, M.E., Mente, P., He, T. et al.In Vitro Biocompatibility and Antibacterial Efficacy of a Degradable Poly(L-lactide-co-epsilon-caprolactone) Copolymer Incorporated with Silver Nanoparticles. Ann Biomed Eng 42, 1482–1493 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-013-0929-9
Mohamed Yehia Zakaria Abouleish, Indoor Air Quality and Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), Public Health, 2020
Edoardo Conticini, Bruno Frediani, Dario Caro, Can atmospheric pollution be considered a co-factor in extremely high level of SARS-CoV-2 lethality in Northern Italy?, Environmental Pollution, Volume 261, 2020.
Damia Barcelo, An environmental and health perspective for COVID-19 outbreak: Meteorology and air quality influence, sewage epidemiology indicator, hospitals disinfection, drug therapies and recommendations, Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, Volume 8, Issue 4,
2020.