New Delhi, April 9 -- Air pollution is likely to be a major risk factor for Covid-19 mortality, scientists have concluded. Prolonged exposure to air pollution leads to a chronic inflammatory response even among the young and healthy which makes people living in polluted areas more susceptible to developing chronic respiratory conditions. This theory is borne out by the high Covid-19 death rates in northern Italy compared to the rest of the country, environmental scientists and physicians concluded.The scientists pointed that the mortality was 12% in Lombardy and Emilia Romagna, as compared to 4.5% in the rest of the country. This region is one of Europe's most polluted based on data from Ozone Monitoring Instrument on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s Aura satellite.p2...