151
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Ojha N, Soni M, Kumar M, Gunthe SS, Chen Y, Ansari TU. Mechanisms and Pathways for Coordinated Control of Fine Particulate Matter and Ozone. CURRENT POLLUTION REPORTS 2022; 8:594-604. [PMID: 35991936 PMCID: PMC9376561 DOI: 10.1007/s40726-022-00229-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/25/2022] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ground-level ozone (O3) pose a significant risk to human health. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently revised healthy thresholds for both pollutants. The formation and evolution of PM2.5 and O3 are however governed by complex physical and multiphase chemical processes, and therefore, it is extremely challenging to mitigate both pollutants simultaneously. Here, we review mechanisms and discuss the science-informed pathways for effective and simultaneous mitigation of PM2.5 and O3. RECENT FINDINGS Global warming has led to a general increase in biogenic emissions, which can enhance the formation of O3 and secondary organic aerosols. Reductions in anthropogenic emissions during the COVID-19 lockdown reduced PM2.5; however, O3 was enhanced in several polluted regions. This was attributed to more intense sunlight due to low aerosol loading and non-linear response of O3 to NO x . Such contrasting physical and chemical interactions hinder the formulation of a clear roadmap for clean air over such regions. SUMMARY Atmospheric chemistry including the role of biogenic emissions, aerosol-radiation interactions, boundary layer, and regional-scale transport are the key aspects that need to be carefully considered in the formulation of mitigation pathways. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the chemical effects of the emission reductions, changes in photolytic rates and boundary layer due to perturbation of solar radiation, and the effect of meteorological/seasonal changes are needed on a regional basis. Statistical emulators and machine learning approaches can aid the cumbersome process of multi-sector multi-species source attribution.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Meghna Soni
- Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India
- Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
| | - Manish Kumar
- Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Sachin S. Gunthe
- EWRE Division, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
- Laboratory for Atmospheric and Climate Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
| | - Ying Chen
- Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Villigen, Switzerland
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152
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Zhang J, Li H, Chen L, Huang X, Zhang W, Zhao R. Particle composition, sources and evolution during the COVID-19 lockdown period in Chengdu, southwest China: Insights from single particle aerosol mass spectrometer data. ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT (OXFORD, ENGLAND : 1994) 2022; 268:118844. [PMID: 34776748 PMCID: PMC8575539 DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2021.118844] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2021] [Revised: 11/05/2021] [Accepted: 11/06/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
In order to investigate the effects of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown on air quality in cities in southwest China, a single particle aerosol mass spectrometer (SPAMS) and other online equipments were used to measure the air pollution in Chengdu, one of the megacities in this area, before and during the lockdown period. It was found that the concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) decreased by 38.6%, 77.5%, 47.0%, 35.1% and 14.1%, respectively, while the concentration of ozone (O3) increased by 57.5% from the time before to the time during lockdown. All particles collected during the study period could be divided into eight categories: biomass burning (BB), coal combustion (CC), vehicle emissions (VE), cooking emissions (CE), Dust, K-nitrate (K-NO3), K-sulfate (K-SO4) and K-sulfate-nitrate (K-SN) particles, and their contributions changed significantly after the beginning of lockdown. Compared to before lockdown, the contribution of VE particles experienced the largest reduction (by 14.9%), whereas the contributions of BB and CE particles increased by 7.0% and 7.3%, respectively, during the lockdown period. Regional transmission was critical for pollution formation before lockdown, whereas the pollution that occurred during the lockdown period was caused mainly by locally emitted particles (such as VE, CE and BB particles). Weighted potential source contribution function (WPSCF) analysis further verified and emphasized the difference in the contribution of regional transmission for pollution formation before and during lockdown. In addition, the potential source area and intensity of the particles emitted from different sources or formation mechanisms were quite different.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junke Zhang
- Faculty of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 611756, China
| | - Huan Li
- Faculty of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 611756, China
| | - Luyao Chen
- Faculty of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 611756, China
| | - Xiaojuan Huang
- Plateau Atmosphere and Environment Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Atmospheric Sciences, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, 610225, China
| | - Wei Zhang
- Sichuan Environmental Monitoring Center, Chengdu, 610074, China
| | - Rui Zhao
- Faculty of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 611756, China
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153
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Kaviani Rad A, Zarei M, Pourghasemi HR, Tiefenbacher JP. The COVID-19 crisis and its consequences for global warming and climate change. COMPUTERS IN EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 2022. [PMCID: PMC9281557 DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-323-89861-4.00006-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
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154
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Acosta‐Ramírez C, Higham JE. Effects of meteorology and human‐mobility on UK's air quality during COVID‐19. METEOROLOGICAL APPLICATIONS 2022; 29:e2061. [PMCID: PMC9347540 DOI: 10.1002/met.2061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2021] [Revised: 01/11/2022] [Accepted: 03/22/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Efforts to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic have had profound positive and negative impacts on social and environmental indicators worldwide. For the first time, a scenario of a partial economic shutdown could be measured, and large tech companies published wide‐coverage mobility reports to quantify the impacts on social change with anonymized location data. During the COVID‐19 pandemic, the UK government has employed some of the strictest lockdown periods in the world, causing an immediate halt to travel and business activities. From these repeated lockdown periods, we have gained a snapshot of life without excessive human‐made pollution; this has allowed us to interrogate the interaction between meteorology and air quality with minimal anthropogenic input. Our findings show a warmer 2020 increased the UK's ozone levels by 9%, while reductions in human‐mobility reduced UK‐wide nitrogen dioxide levels by 25% in 2020, which have remained low during the first months of 2021 despite curtailing/ending of restrictions; and a decrease in particulate matter created by meteorological and human drivers. Regionally, London records the highest NO2 and O3 changes, −31% and 35%, respectively, linked to mobility reductions and meteorology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cammy Acosta‐Ramírez
- Department of Geography and PlanningSchool of Environmental Sciences, University of LiverpoolLiverpoolUK
| | - Jonathan E. Higham
- Department of Geography and PlanningSchool of Environmental Sciences, University of LiverpoolLiverpoolUK
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155
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Gopikrishnan GS, Kuttippurath J, Raj S, Singh A, Abbhishek K. Air Quality during the COVID–19 Lockdown and Unlock Periods in India Analyzed Using Satellite and Ground-based Measurements. ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESSES 2022; 9:28. [PMCID: PMC9059918 DOI: 10.1007/s40710-022-00585-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
Abstract A nationwide lockdown was imposed in India from 24 March 2020 to 31 May 2020 to contain the spread of COVID-19. The lockdown has changed the atmospheric pollution across the continents. Here, we analyze the changes in two most important air quality related trace gases, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and tropospheric ozone (O3) from satellite and surface observations, during the lockdown (April–May 2020) and unlock periods (June–September 2020) in India, to examine the baseline emissions when anthropogenic sources were significantly reduced. We use the Bayesian statistics to find the changes in these trace gas concentrations in different time periods. There is a strong reduction in NO2 during the lockdown as public transport and industries were shut during that period. The largest changes are found in IGP (Indo-Gangetic Plain), and industrial and mining areas in Eastern India. The changes are small in the hilly regions, where the concentrations of these trace gases are also very small (0–1 × 1015 molec./cm2). In addition, a corresponding increase in the concentrations of tropospheric O3 is observed during the period. The analyses over cities show that there is a large decrease in NO2 in Delhi (36%), Bangalore (21%) and Ahmedabad (21%). As the lockdown restrictions were eased during the unlock period, the concentrations of NO2 gradually increased and ozone deceased in most regions. Therefore, this study suggests that pollution control measures should be prioritized, ensuring strict regulations to control the source of anthropogenic pollutants, particularly from the transport and industrial sectors. Highlights • Most cities show a reduction up to 15% of NO2 during the lockdown • The unlock periods show again an increase of about 40–50% in NO2 • An increase in tropospheric O3 is observed together with the decrease in NO2 Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40710-022-00585-9.
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Affiliation(s)
- G. S. Gopikrishnan
- CORAL, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, 721302 Kharagpur, West Bengal India
| | - J. Kuttippurath
- CORAL, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, 721302 Kharagpur, West Bengal India
| | - S. Raj
- CORAL, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, 721302 Kharagpur, West Bengal India
| | - A. Singh
- CORAL, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, 721302 Kharagpur, West Bengal India
| | - K. Abbhishek
- CORAL, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, 721302 Kharagpur, West Bengal India
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156
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Calafiore A, Macdonald JL, Singleton A. Decomposing the Temporal Signature of Nitrogen Dioxide Declines during the COVID-19 Pandemic in UK Urban Areas. APPLIED SPATIAL ANALYSIS AND POLICY 2022; 15:1167-1191. [PMID: 35432626 PMCID: PMC9003179 DOI: 10.1007/s12061-022-09438-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2021] [Accepted: 02/22/2022] [Indexed: 05/07/2023]
Abstract
On March 23, 2020, a national lockdown was imposed in the UK to limit interpersonal contact and the spread of COVID-19. Human mobility patterns were drastically adjusted as individuals complied with stay-at-home orders, changed their working patterns, and moved increasingly in the proximity of their home. Such behavioural changes brought about many spillover impacts, among which the sharp and immediate reduction in the concentration of nitrogen-based pollutants throughout the country. This work explores the extent to which urban Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) concentration responds to changes in human behaviour, in particular human mobility patterns and commuting. We model the dynamic and responsive change in NO2 concentration in the period directly following national lockdown and respective opening orders. Using the national urban air quality monitoring network we generate a synthetic NO2 concentration series built from a time series of historic data to compare expected modelled trends to the actual observed patterns in 2020. A series of pre- and post-estimators are modelled to understand the scale of concentration responsiveness to human activity and varying ability of areas across the UK to comply with the lockdown closing and response to openings. Specifically, these are linked to workday commuting times and observed patterns of human mobility change obtained from Google mobility reports. We find a strong and robust co-movement of air pollution concentration and work-related mobility - concentrations of NO2 during typical weekday commuting hours saw a higher relative drop, moving in tandem with patterns of human mobility around workplaces over the course of lockdowns and openings. While NO2 concentrations remained relatively low around the time of reopening, particularly during commuting hours, there is a relatively fast responsiveness rate to concentrations increasing quickly in line with human activity. With one of the key Government advice for workers to take staggered transportation into work and lessen the burden of rush hours and adopting more flexible work-home arrangements, our results would suggest that reductions in NO2 in urban areas are particularly responsive to broader human patterns and dynamics over time as we transitioned towards new working routines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alessia Calafiore
- Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool, Chatham St, Liverpool, L69 7ZT UK
| | - Jacob L. Macdonald
- Department of Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield, S10 2TN UK
| | - Alex Singleton
- Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool, Chatham St, Liverpool, L69 7ZT UK
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157
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García-Dalmau M, Udina M, Bech J, Sola Y, Montolio J, Jaén C. Pollutant Concentration Changes During the COVID-19 Lockdown in Barcelona and Surrounding Regions: Modification of Diurnal Cycles and Limited Role of Meteorological Conditions. BOUNDARY-LAYER METEOROLOGY 2021; 183:273-294. [PMID: 34975160 PMCID: PMC8711231 DOI: 10.1007/s10546-021-00679-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2021] [Accepted: 10/11/2021] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
One of the consequences of the COVID-19 lockdowns has been the modification of the air quality in many cities around the world. This study focuses on the variations in pollutant concentrations and how important meteorological conditions were for those variations in Barcelona and the surrounding area during the 2020 lockdown. Boundary-layer height, wind speed, and precipitation were compared between mid-March and April 2016-2019 (pre-lockdown) and the same period in 2020 (during lockdown). The results show the limited influence of meteorological factors on horizontal and vertical dispersion conditions. Compared with the pre-lockdown period, during lockdown the boundary-layer height slightly increased by between 5% and 9%, mean wind speed was very similar, and the fraction of days with rainfall increased only marginally, from 0.33 to 0.34, even though April 2020 was extremely wet in the study area. Variations in nitrogen dioxide ( NO 2 ), particulate matter with a diameter less than 10 μ m (PM10), and ozone ( O 3 ) concentrations over a 10-year period showed a 66% reduction in NO 2 , 37% reduction in PM10, and 27% increase in O 3 at a traffic station in Barcelona. The differences in the daily concentration cycle between weekends and weekdays were heavily smoothed for all pollutants considered. The afternoon NO 2 peak at the traffic station was suppressed compared with the average daily cycle. The analysis of ozone was extended to the regional scale, revealing lower concentrations at rural sites and higher ones in urban zones, especially in Barcelona and the surrounding area. The results presented not only complement previous air quality COVID-19 lockdown studies but also provide insights into the effects of road-traffic reduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miguel García-Dalmau
- Departament de Física Aplicada–Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Mireia Udina
- Departament de Física Aplicada–Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Joan Bech
- Departament de Física Aplicada–Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Yolanda Sola
- Departament de Física Aplicada–Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Joan Montolio
- Departament de Física Aplicada–Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- DT Catalonia, AEMET, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Clara Jaén
- Departament de Física Aplicada–Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEACSIC), Barcelona, Spain
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158
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Ceballos-Santos S, González-Pardo J, Carslaw DC, Santurtún A, Santibáñez M, Fernández-Olmo I. Meteorological Normalisation Using Boosted Regression Trees to Estimate the Impact of COVID-19 Restrictions on Air Quality Levels. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2021; 18:13347. [PMID: 34948956 PMCID: PMC8701894 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182413347] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2021] [Revised: 12/13/2021] [Accepted: 12/14/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
The global COVID-19 pandemic that began in late December 2019 led to unprecedented lockdowns worldwide, providing a unique opportunity to investigate in detail the impacts of restricted anthropogenic emissions on air quality. A wide range of strategies and approaches exist to achieve this. In this paper, we use the "deweather" R package, based on Boosted Regression Tree (BRT) models, first to remove the influences of meteorology and emission trend patterns from NO, NO2, PM10 and O3 data series, and then to calculate the relative changes in air pollutant levels in 2020 with respect to the previous seven years (2013-2019). Data from a northern Spanish region, Cantabria, with all types of monitoring stations (traffic, urban background, industrial and rural) were used, dividing the calendar year into eight periods according to the intensity of government restrictions. The results showed mean reductions in the lockdown period above -50% for NOx, around -10% for PM10 and below -5% for O3. Small differences were found between the relative changes obtained from normalised data with respect to those from observations. These results highlight the importance of developing an integrated policy to reduce anthropogenic emissions and the need to move towards sustainable mobility to ensure safer air quality levels, as pre-existing concentrations in some cases exceed the safe threshold.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandra Ceballos-Santos
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain; (J.G.-P.); (I.F.-O.)
| | - Jaime González-Pardo
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain; (J.G.-P.); (I.F.-O.)
| | - David C. Carslaw
- Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK;
- Ricardo Energy & Environment, Didcot OX11 0QR, UK
| | - Ana Santurtún
- Unit of Legal Medicine, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Cantabria, 39011 Santander, Spain;
| | - Miguel Santibáñez
- Global Health Research Group, Department of Nursing, University of Cantabria, 39008 Santander, Spain;
- Research Nursing Group, IDIVAL, Calle Cardenal Herrera Oria s/n, 39011 Santander, Spain
| | - Ignacio Fernández-Olmo
- Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Cantabria, 39005 Santander, Spain; (J.G.-P.); (I.F.-O.)
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159
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Souri AH, Chance K, Bak J, Nowlan CR, Abad GG, Jung Y, Wong DC, Mao J, Liu X. Unraveling pathways of elevated ozone induced by the 2020 lockdown in Europe by an observationally constrained regional model using TROPOMI. ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS 2021; 21:1-19. [PMID: 34987561 PMCID: PMC8721815 DOI: 10.5194/acp-21-18227-2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Questions about how emissions are changing during the COVID-19 lockdown periods cannot be answered by observations of atmospheric trace gas concentrations alone, in part due to simultaneous changes in atmospheric transport, emissions, dynamics, photochemistry, and chemical feedback. A chemical transport model simulation benefiting from a multi-species inversion framework using well-characterized observations should differentiate those influences enabling to closely examine changes in emissions. Accordingly, we jointly constrain NO x and VOC emissions using well-characterized TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) HCHO and NO2 columns during the months of March, April, and May 2020 (lockdown) and 2019 (baseline). We observe a noticeable decline in the magnitude of NO x emissions in March 2020 (14 %-31 %) in several major cities including Paris, London, Madrid, and Milan, expanding further to Rome, Brussels, Frankfurt, Warsaw, Belgrade, Kyiv, and Moscow (34 %-51 %) in April. However, NO x emissions remain at somewhat similar values or even higher in some portions of the UK, Poland, and Moscow in March 2020 compared to the baseline, possibly due to the timeline of restrictions. Comparisons against surface monitoring stations indicate that the constrained model underrepresents the reduction in surface NO2. This underrepresentation correlates with the TROPOMI frequency impacted by cloudiness. During the month of April, when ample TROPOMI samples are present, the surface NO2 reductions occurring in polluted areas are described fairly well by the model (model: -21 ± 17 %, observation: -29 ± 21 %). The observational constraint on VOC emissions is found to be generally weak except for lower latitudes. Results support an increase in surface ozone during the lockdown. In April, the constrained model features a reasonable agreement with maximum daily 8 h average (MDA8) ozone changes observed at the surface (r = 0.43), specifically over central Europe where ozone enhancements prevail (model: +3.73 ± 3.94 %, + 1.79 ppbv, observation: +7.35 ± 11.27 %, +3.76 ppbv). The model suggests that physical processes (dry deposition, advection, and diffusion) decrease MDA8 surface ozone in the same month on average by -4.83 ppbv, while ozone production rates dampened by largely negative J NO 2 [ NO 2 ] - k NO + O 3 [ NO ] [ O 3 ] become less negative, leading ozone to increase by +5.89 ppbv. Experiments involving fixed anthropogenic emissions suggest that meteorology contributes to 42 % enhancement in MDA8 surface ozone over the same region with the remaining part (58 %) coming from changes in anthropogenic emissions. Results illustrate the capability of satellite data of major ozone precursors to help atmospheric models capture ozone changes induced by abrupt emission anomalies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amir H. Souri
- Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMP) Division, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Kelly Chance
- Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMP) Division, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Juseon Bak
- Institute of Environmental Studies, Pusan National University, Busan, South Korea
| | - Caroline R. Nowlan
- Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMP) Division, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Gonzalo González Abad
- Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMP) Division, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Yeonjin Jung
- Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMP) Division, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - David C. Wong
- US Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Environmental Measurement & Modeling, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA
| | - Jingqiu Mao
- Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA
- Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA
| | - Xiong Liu
- Atomic and Molecular Physics (AMP) Division, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA
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160
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Adam MG, Tran PTM, Balasubramanian R. Air quality changes in cities during the COVID-19 lockdown: A critical review. ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH 2021; 264:105823. [PMID: 34456403 PMCID: PMC8384485 DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosres.2021.105823] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2021] [Revised: 08/11/2021] [Accepted: 08/21/2021] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
In response to the rapid spread of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) within and across countries and the need to protect public health, governments worldwide introduced unprecedented measures such as restricted road and air travel and reduced human mobility in 2020. The curtailment of personal travel and economic activity provided a unique opportunity for researchers to assess the interplay between anthropogenic emissions of primary air pollutants, their physical transport, chemical transformation, ultimate fate and potential health impacts. In general, reductions in the atmospheric levels of outdoor air pollutants such as particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were observed in many countries during the lockdowns. However, the levels of ozone (O3), a secondary air pollutant linked to asthma and respiratory ailments, and secondary PM were frequently reported to remain unchanged or even increase. An increase in O3 can enhance the formation of secondary PM2.5, especially secondary organic aerosols, through the atmospheric oxidation of VOCs. Given that the gaseous precursors of O3 (VOCs and NOx) are also involved in the formation of secondary PM2.5, an integrated control strategy should focus on reducing the emission of the common precursors for the co-mitigation of PM2.5 and O3 with an emphasis on their complex photochemical interactions. Compared to outdoor air quality, comprehensive investigations of indoor air quality (IAQ) are relatively sparse. People spend more than 80% of their time indoors with exposure to air pollutants of both outdoor and indoor origins. Consequently, an integrated assessment of exposure to air pollutants in both outdoor and indoor microenvironments is needed for effective urban air quality management and for mitigation of health risk. To provide further insights into air quality, we do a critical review of scientific articles, published from January 2020 to December 2020 across the globe. Finally, we discuss policy implications of our review in the context of global air quality improvement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Max G Adam
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576, Singapore
| | - Phuong T M Tran
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576, Singapore
- Faculty of Environment, University of Science and Technology, The University of Danang, 54 Nguyen Luong Bang Street, Lien Chieu District, Danang City, Viet Nam
| | - Rajasekhar Balasubramanian
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576, Singapore
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161
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Duque L, Poelman EH, Steffan-Dewenter I. Plant age at the time of ozone exposure affects flowering patterns, biotic interactions and reproduction of wild mustard. Sci Rep 2021; 11:23448. [PMID: 34873217 PMCID: PMC8648743 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-02878-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2021] [Accepted: 11/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Exposure of plants to environmental stressors can modify their metabolism, interactions with other organisms and reproductive success. Tropospheric ozone is a source of plant stress. We investigated how an acute exposure to ozone at different times of plant development affects reproductive performance, as well as the flowering patterns and the interactions with pollinators and herbivores, of wild mustard plants. The number of open flowers was higher on plants exposed to ozone at earlier ages than on the respective controls, while plants exposed at later ages showed a tendency for decreased number of open flowers. The changes in the number of flowers provided a good explanation for the ozone-induced effects on reproductive performance and on pollinator visitation. Ozone exposure at earlier ages also led to either earlier or extended flowering periods. Moreover, ozone tended to increase herbivore abundance, with responses depending on herbivore taxa and the plant age at the time of ozone exposure. These results suggest that the effects of ozone exposure depend on the developmental stage of the plant, affecting the flowering patterns in different directions, with consequences for pollination and reproduction of annual crops and wild species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Duque
- Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
| | - Erik H Poelman
- Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter
- Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
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162
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Sarmadi M, Rahimi S, Rezaei M, Sanaei D, Dianatinasab M. Air quality index variation before and after the onset of COVID-19 pandemic: a comprehensive study on 87 capital, industrial and polluted cities of the world. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES EUROPE 2021; 33:134. [PMID: 34900511 PMCID: PMC8645297 DOI: 10.1186/s12302-021-00575-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2021] [Accepted: 11/20/2021] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic provided an opportunity for the environment to reduce ambient pollution despite the economic, social and health disruption to the world. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in the air quality indexes (AQI) in industrial, densely populated and capital cities in different countries of the world before and after 2020. In this ecological study, we used AQI obtained from the free available databases such as the World Air Quality Index (WAQI). Bivariate correlation analysis was used to explore the correlations between meteorological and AQI variables. Mean differences (standard deviation: SD) of AQI parameters of different years were tested using paired-sample t-test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test as appropriate. Multivariable linear regression analysis was conducted to recognize meteorological variables affecting the AQI parameters. RESULTS AQI-PM2.5, AQI-PM10 and AQI-NO2 changes were significantly higher before and after 2020, simultaneously with COVID-19 restrictions in different cities of the world. The overall changes of AQI-PM2.5, AQI-PM10 and AQI-NO2 in 2020 were - 7.36%, - 17.52% and - 20.54% compared to 2019. On the other hand, these results became reversed in 2021 (+ 4.25%, + 9.08% and + 7.48%). In general, the temperature and relative humidity were inversely correlated with AQI-PM2.5, AQI-PM10 and AQI-NO2. Also, after adjusting for other meteorological factors, the relative humidity was inversely associated with AQI-PM2.5, AQI-PM10 and AQI-NO2 (β = - 1.55, β = - 0.88 and β = - 0.10, P < 0.01, respectively). CONCLUSIONS The results indicated that air quality generally improved for all pollutants except carbon monoxide and ozone in 2020; however, changes in 2021 have been reversed, which may be due to the reduction of some countries' restrictions. Although this quality improvement was temporary, it is an important result for planning to control environmental pollutants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Sarmadi
- Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat Heydariyeh, Iran
- Health Sciences Research Center, Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat Heydariyeh, Iran
| | - Sajjad Rahimi
- Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat Heydariyeh, Iran
- Health Sciences Research Center, Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat Heydariyeh, Iran
| | - Mina Rezaei
- Health Sciences Research Center, Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat Heydariyeh, Iran
| | - Daryoush Sanaei
- Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Faculty of Public Health and Safety, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mostafa Dianatinasab
- Department of Complex Genetics and Epidemiology, School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
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Ravindra K, Singh T, Vardhan S, Shrivastava A, Singh S, Kumar P, Mor S. COVID-19 pandemic: What can we learn for better air quality and human health? J Infect Public Health 2021; 15:187-198. [PMID: 34979337 PMCID: PMC8642828 DOI: 10.1016/j.jiph.2021.12.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2021] [Revised: 11/15/2021] [Accepted: 12/01/2021] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The COVID-19 lockdown resulted in improved air quality in many cities across the world. With the objective of what could be the new learning from the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns for better air quality and human health, a critical synthesis of the available evidence concerning air pollution reduction, the population at risk and natural versus anthropogenic emissions was conducted. Can the new societal norms adopted during pandemics, such as the use of face cover, awareness regarding respiratory hand hygiene, and physical distancing, help in reducing disease burden in the future? The use of masks will be more socially acceptable during the high air pollution episodes in lower and middle-income countries, which could help to reduce air pollution exposure. Although post-pandemic, some air pollution reduction strategies may be affected, such as car-pooling and the use of mass transit systems for commuting to avoid exposure to airborne infections like coronavirus. However, promoting non-motorized modes of transportation such as cycling and walking within cities as currently being enabled in Europe and other countries could overshadow such losses. This demand focus on increasing walkability in a town for all ages and populations, including for a differently-abled community. The study highlighted that for better health and sustainability there. is also a need to promote other measures such as work-from-home, technological infrastructure, the extension of smart cities, and the use of information technology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Khaiwal Ravindra
- Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, 160012, India.
| | - Tanbir Singh
- Department of Environment Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014, India
| | - Shikha Vardhan
- Centre for Environmental & Occupational Health, Climate Change & Health, National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, 110054, India
| | - Aakash Shrivastava
- Centre for Environmental & Occupational Health, Climate Change & Health, National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, 110054, India
| | - Sujeet Singh
- Centre for Environmental & Occupational Health, Climate Change & Health, National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, 110054, India
| | - Prashant Kumar
- Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, United Kingdom
| | - Suman Mor
- Department of Environment Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh, 160014, India.
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164
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Sokhi RS, Singh V, Querol X, Finardi S, Targino AC, Andrade MDF, Pavlovic R, Garland RM, Massagué J, Kong S, Baklanov A, Ren L, Tarasova O, Carmichael G, Peuch VH, Anand V, Arbilla G, Badali K, Beig G, Belalcazar LC, Bolignano A, Brimblecombe P, Camacho P, Casallas A, Charland JP, Choi J, Chourdakis E, Coll I, Collins M, Cyrys J, da Silva CM, Di Giosa AD, Di Leo A, Ferro C, Gavidia-Calderon M, Gayen A, Ginzburg A, Godefroy F, Gonzalez YA, Guevara-Luna M, Haque SM, Havenga H, Herod D, Hõrrak U, Hussein T, Ibarra S, Jaimes M, Kaasik M, Khaiwal R, Kim J, Kousa A, Kukkonen J, Kulmala M, Kuula J, La Violette N, Lanzani G, Liu X, MacDougall S, Manseau PM, Marchegiani G, McDonald B, Mishra SV, Molina LT, Mooibroek D, Mor S, Moussiopoulos N, Murena F, Niemi JV, Noe S, Nogueira T, Norman M, Pérez-Camaño JL, Petäjä T, Piketh S, Rathod A, Reid K, Retama A, Rivera O, Rojas NY, Rojas-Quincho JP, San José R, Sánchez O, Seguel RJ, Sillanpää S, Su Y, Tapper N, Terrazas A, Timonen H, Toscano D, Tsegas G, Velders GJM, Vlachokostas C, von Schneidemesser E, Vpm R, Yadav R, Zalakeviciute R, Zavala M. A global observational analysis to understand changes in air quality during exceptionally low anthropogenic emission conditions. ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL 2021; 157:106818. [PMID: 34425482 DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106818] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 19.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2021] [Revised: 07/21/2021] [Accepted: 08/05/2021] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
This global study, which has been coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization Global Atmospheric Watch (WMO/GAW) programme, aims to understand the behaviour of key air pollutant species during the COVID-19 pandemic period of exceptionally low emissions across the globe. We investigated the effects of the differences in both emissions and regional and local meteorology in 2020 compared with the period 2015-2019. By adopting a globally consistent approach, this comprehensive observational analysis focuses on changes in air quality in and around cities across the globe for the following air pollutants PM2.5, PM10, PMC (coarse fraction of PM), NO2, SO2, NOx, CO, O3 and the total gaseous oxidant (OX = NO2 + O3) during the pre-lockdown, partial lockdown, full lockdown and two relaxation periods spanning from January to September 2020. The analysis is based on in situ ground-based air quality observations at over 540 traffic, background and rural stations, from 63 cities and covering 25 countries over seven geographical regions of the world. Anomalies in the air pollutant concentrations (increases or decreases during 2020 periods compared to equivalent 2015-2019 periods) were calculated and the possible effects of meteorological conditions were analysed by computing anomalies from ERA5 reanalyses and local observations for these periods. We observed a positive correlation between the reductions in NO2 and NOx concentrations and peoples' mobility for most cities. A correlation between PMC and mobility changes was also seen for some Asian and South American cities. A clear signal was not observed for other pollutants, suggesting that sources besides vehicular emissions also substantially contributed to the change in air quality. As a global and regional overview of the changes in ambient concentrations of key air quality species, we observed decreases of up to about 70% in mean NO2 and between 30% and 40% in mean PM2.5 concentrations over 2020 full lockdown compared to the same period in 2015-2019. However, PM2.5 exhibited complex signals, even within the same region, with increases in some Spanish cities, attributed mainly to the long-range transport of African dust and/or biomass burning (corroborated with the analysis of NO2/CO ratio). Some Chinese cities showed similar increases in PM2.5 during the lockdown periods, but in this case, it was likely due to secondary PM formation. Changes in O3 concentrations were highly heterogeneous, with no overall change or small increases (as in the case of Europe), and positive anomalies of 25% and 30% in East Asia and South America, respectively, with Colombia showing the largest positive anomaly of ~70%. The SO2 anomalies were negative for 2020 compared to 2015-2019 (between ~25 to 60%) for all regions. For CO, negative anomalies were observed for all regions with the largest decrease for South America of up to ~40%. The NO2/CO ratio indicated that specific sites (such as those in Spanish cities) were affected by biomass burning plumes, which outweighed the NO2 decrease due to the general reduction in mobility (ratio of ~60%). Analysis of the total oxidant (OX = NO2 + O3) showed that primary NO2 emissions at urban locations were greater than the O3 production, whereas at background sites, OX was mostly driven by the regional contributions rather than local NO2 and O3 concentrations. The present study clearly highlights the importance of meteorology and episodic contributions (e.g., from dust, domestic, agricultural biomass burning and crop fertilizing) when analysing air quality in and around cities even during large emissions reductions. There is still the need to better understand how the chemical responses of secondary pollutants to emission change under complex meteorological conditions, along with climate change and socio-economic drivers may affect future air quality. The implications for regional and global policies are also significant, as our study clearly indicates that PM2.5 concentrations would not likely meet the World Health Organization guidelines in many parts of the world, despite the drastic reductions in mobility. Consequently, revisions of air quality regulation (e.g., the Gothenburg Protocol) with more ambitious targets that are specific to the different regions of the world may well be required.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ranjeet S Sokhi
- Centre for Atmospheric and Climate Physics (CACP) and Centre for Climate Change Research (C3R), University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK.
| | - Vikas Singh
- National Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Gadanki, AP, India
| | - Xavier Querol
- Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA), Spanish Research Council (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain
| | | | - Admir Créso Targino
- Graduate Program in Environment Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Londrina, Brazil
| | | | - Radenko Pavlovic
- Meteorological Service of Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Dorval, Canada
| | - Rebecca M Garland
- Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria, South Africa; Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa; Department of Geography, Geo-informatics and Meteorology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
| | - Jordi Massagué
- Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA), Spanish Research Council (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain; Department of Mining, Industrial and ICT Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, BarcelonaTech (UPC), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Shaofei Kong
- Department of Atmospheric Sciences, School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China
| | - Alexander Baklanov
- Science and Innovation Department, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Lu Ren
- Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
| | - Oksana Tarasova
- Science and Innovation Department, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Greg Carmichael
- Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
| | - Vincent-Henri Peuch
- ECMWF, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Shinfield Park, Reading, UK
| | - Vrinda Anand
- Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, India
| | | | - Kaitlin Badali
- Analysis and Air Quality Section, Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ottawa, Canada
| | - Gufran Beig
- Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, India
| | | | - Andrea Bolignano
- Agenzia Regionale di Protezione dell'Ambiente del Lazio, Rome, Italy
| | - Peter Brimblecombe
- Department of Marine Environment and Engineering, National Sun Yat Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
| | - Patricia Camacho
- Secretaria del Medio Ambiente de la Ciudad de México (SEDEMA), Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Alejandro Casallas
- Earth System Physics, The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy; Escuela de Ciencias Exactas e Ingenieria, Universidad Sergio Arboleda, Bogotá, Colombia
| | - Jean-Pierre Charland
- Analysis and Air Quality Section, Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ottawa, Canada
| | - Jason Choi
- Environment Protection Authority Victoria, Centre for Applied Sciences, Macleod, Australia
| | - Eleftherios Chourdakis
- Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Isabelle Coll
- Université Paris-Est Créteil and Université de Paris, CNRS, LISA, Creteil, France
| | - Marty Collins
- Air Monitoring Operations, Resource Stewardship Division, Environment and Parks, Edmonton, Canada
| | - Josef Cyrys
- Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany
| | | | | | - Anna Di Leo
- Agenzia Regionale di Protezione dell'Ambiente della Lombardia, Milano, Italy
| | - Camilo Ferro
- Escuela de Ciencias Exactas e Ingenieria, Universidad Sergio Arboleda, Bogotá, Colombia
| | | | - Amiya Gayen
- Department of Geography, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India
| | | | - Fabrice Godefroy
- Service de l'Environnement, Division du Contrôle des Rejets et Suivi Environnemental, Montréal, Canada
| | | | - Marco Guevara-Luna
- Conservación, Bioprospección y Desarrollo Sostenible, Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia, Bogotá, Colombia
| | | | - Henno Havenga
- Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
| | - Dennis Herod
- National Smog Analysis, Analysis and Air Quality Section, Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ottawa, Canada
| | - Urmas Hõrrak
- Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Tareq Hussein
- Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR/Physics), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Sergio Ibarra
- Departamento de Ciências Atmosféricas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Monica Jaimes
- Secretaria del Medio Ambiente de la Ciudad de México (SEDEMA), Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Marko Kaasik
- Institute of Physics, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Ravindra Khaiwal
- Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India
| | - Jhoon Kim
- Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
| | - Anu Kousa
- Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Jaakko Kukkonen
- Centre for Atmospheric and Climate Physics (CACP) and Centre for Climate Change Research (C3R), University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK; Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Markku Kulmala
- Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR/Physics), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Joel Kuula
- Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Nathalie La Violette
- Direction de la qualité de l'air et du climat, Direction générale du suivi de l'état de l'environnement, Ministère de l'Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques Québec, Canada
| | - Guido Lanzani
- Agenzia Regionale di Protezione dell'Ambiente della Lombardia, Milano, Italy
| | - Xi Liu
- Department of Atmospheric Sciences, School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China
| | | | - Patrick M Manseau
- Meteorological Service of Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Dorval, Canada
| | - Giada Marchegiani
- Agenzia Regionale di Protezione dell'Ambiente del Lazio, Rome, Italy
| | - Brian McDonald
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Chemical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, USA
| | | | | | - Dennis Mooibroek
- National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands
| | - Suman Mor
- Department of Environment Studies, Punjab University, Chandigarh, India
| | - Nicolas Moussiopoulos
- Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Fabio Murena
- Department of Chemical, Material and Production Engineering (DICMAPI), Naples, Italy
| | - Jarkko V Niemi
- Direction de la qualité de l'air et du climat, Direction générale du suivi de l'état de l'environnement, Ministère de l'Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques Québec, Canada
| | - Steffen Noe
- Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Thiago Nogueira
- Departamento de Ciências Atmosféricas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Michael Norman
- Environment and Health Administration, City of Stockholm, Sweden
| | | | - Tuukka Petäjä
- Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR/Physics), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Stuart Piketh
- Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
| | - Aditi Rathod
- Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, India
| | - Ken Reid
- Air Quality and Climate Change, Metro Vancouver Regional District, Burnaby, Canada
| | | | - Olivia Rivera
- Secretaria del Medio Ambiente de la Ciudad de México (SEDEMA), Mexico City, Mexico
| | | | | | - Roberto San José
- Computer Science School, ESMG, Technical University of Madrid (UPM), Madrid, Spain
| | - Odón Sánchez
- Atmospheric Pollution Research Group, Universidad Nacional Tecnológica de Lima Sur, Lima, Peru
| | - Rodrigo J Seguel
- Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CR)2, Department of Geophysics, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile
| | | | - Yushan Su
- Environmental Monitoring and Reporting Branch, Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, Toronto, Canada
| | - Nigel Tapper
- School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
| | - Antonio Terrazas
- Secretaria del Medio Ambiente de la Ciudad de México (SEDEMA), Mexico City, Mexico
| | | | - Domenico Toscano
- Department of Chemical, Material and Production Engineering (DICMAPI), Naples, Italy
| | - George Tsegas
- Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Guus J M Velders
- National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands
| | - Christos Vlachokostas
- Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece
| | | | - Rajasree Vpm
- Centre for Atmospheric and Climate Physics (CACP) and Centre for Climate Change Research (C3R), University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK
| | - Ravi Yadav
- Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India, India
| | - Rasa Zalakeviciute
- Grupo de Biodiversidad, Medio Ambiente y Salud (BIOMAS), Universidad de Las Americas, Quito, Ecuador
| | - Miguel Zavala
- Molina Center for Energy and the Environment, CA, USA
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Tavella RA, da Silva Júnior FMR. Watch out for trends: did ozone increased or decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic? ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2021; 28:67880-67885. [PMID: 34694554 PMCID: PMC8542654 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-17142-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2021] [Accepted: 10/18/2021] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Restriction measures against COVID-19 caused the environmental panorama of cities to change, especially in relation to air pollution. This scenario of severe reduction in the emission of air pollutants led to a flurry of studies about their behavior during the pandemic. The vast majority of studies pointed to a decrease in all pollutants, with the exception of ozone. However, was this highlighted ozone trend really the global trend? This discussion seeks to answer this question while addressing two major considerations that led to this trend: (1) the process of ozone formation and behavior and (2) the main reasons that led to the findings of this trend (region of the studies, meteorological conditions, and the time scale adopted for data collection). From our observations, we emphasize that a trend is not unanimity! The global trend turned out to be the opposite of what the initial studies showed, all this because the observed trend was a regional trend, affected by the reasons discussed. Thus, we raise awareness and concern with the way in which the initial "fever" of the behavior of air pollutants occurred and also toward the act of sampling highly populated areas, as this attitude could have caused biased estimations and disinformation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ronan Adler Tavella
- Universidade Federal Do Rio Grande - FURG, Av. Itália km 8 Bairro Carreiros, Rio Grande, RS, 96203-900, Brazil
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166
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von Schneidemesser E, Sibiya B, Caseiro A, Butler T, Lawrence MG, Leitao J, Lupascu A, Salvador P. Learning from the COVID-19 lockdown in berlin: Observations and modelling to support understanding policies to reduce NO 2. ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT: X 2021; 12:100122. [PMID: 34723169 PMCID: PMC8545717 DOI: 10.1016/j.aeaoa.2021.100122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/27/2021] [Revised: 07/16/2021] [Accepted: 07/25/2021] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Urban air pollution is a substantial threat to human health. Traffic emissions remain a large contributor to air pollution in urban areas. The mobility restrictions put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic provided a large-scale real-world experiment that allows for the evaluation of changes in traffic emissions and the corresponding changes in air quality. Here we use observational data, as well as modelling, to analyse changes in nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and particulate matter resulting from the COVID-19 restrictions at the height of the lockdown period in Spring of 2020. Accounting for the influence of meteorology on air quality, we found that reduction of ca. 30-50 % in traffic counts, dominated by changes in passenger cars, corresponded to reductions in median observed nitrogen dioxide concentrations of ca. 40 % (traffic and urban background locations) and a ca. 22 % increase in ozone (urban background locations) during weekdays. Lesser reductions in nitrogen dioxide concentrations were observed at urban background stations at weekends, and no change in ozone was observed. The modelled reductions in median nitrogen dioxide at urban background locations were smaller than the observed reductions and the change was not significant. The model results showed no significant change in ozone on weekdays or weekends. The lack of a simulated weekday/weekend effect is consistent with previous work suggesting that NOx emissions from traffic could be significantly underestimated in European cities by models. These results indicate the potential for improvements in air quality due to policies for reducing traffic, along with the scale of reductions that would be needed to result in meaningful changes in air quality if a transition to sustainable mobility is to be seriously considered. They also confirm once more the highly relevant role of traffic for air quality in urban areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erika von Schneidemesser
- Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V., Berlinerstrasse 130, 14467, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Bheki Sibiya
- Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V., Berlinerstrasse 130, 14467, Potsdam, Germany
- Institut für Meteorologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
| | - Alexandre Caseiro
- Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V., Berlinerstrasse 130, 14467, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Tim Butler
- Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V., Berlinerstrasse 130, 14467, Potsdam, Germany
- Institut für Meteorologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
| | - Mark G Lawrence
- Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V., Berlinerstrasse 130, 14467, Potsdam, Germany
- Institute of Environmental Science and Geography, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Joana Leitao
- Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V., Berlinerstrasse 130, 14467, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Aurelia Lupascu
- Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V., Berlinerstrasse 130, 14467, Potsdam, Germany
| | - Pedro Salvador
- Department of Environment CIEMAT, Avda. Complutense 40, 28040, Madrid, Spain
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167
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Space-based monitoring of NO 2 levels during COVID-19 lockdown in Cairo, Egypt and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. THE EGYPTIAN JOURNAL OF REMOTE SENSING AND SPACE SCIENCES 2021; 24:659-664. [PMCID: PMC7998056 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrs.2021.03.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2020] [Revised: 02/16/2021] [Accepted: 03/17/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The lockdown of COVID-19 pandemic has affected air quality due to the changes in human activities. Researchers worldwide observed reductions in NO2 concentrations due to lockdown and related diminished human activities, notably the reduced industrial and vehicular use. However, limited information was available for the MENA Region. In this study, the impact of lockdown due to COVID-19 on NO2 in two MENA major cities: Cairo, Egypt and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was assessed. NO2 column was retrieved from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on Aura for April 2017 to 2020. The monthly mean value of NO2 concentrations of April 2017–2019 was used as a baseline. NO2 concentration in April 2020 was compared to the baseline to assess the impact of lockdown on NO2. The results demonstrated that the lockdown was associated with a reduction in NO2 in both cities. NO2 decreases by 40.3% and 23% in Riyadh and Cairo. By comparing the decrease of NO2 at weekends and weekdays, it was found that in Cairo, the decrease in weekdays (16.3%) was lower than weekends (31.9%). While in Riyadh, the decrease in weekdays (43.9%) was higher than weekends (29.3%). Variation in the reduction rates appears to be related to the different lockdown regimens taken by the two countries, among other factors. The findings of the present investigation alert countries in the region about the impact of human activities on urban air population and urge them to take appropriate mitigation measures to maintain good ambient air quality to protect human health and the environment.
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168
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Singh BP, Kumar P. Spatio-temporal variation in fine particulate matter and effect on air quality during the COVID-19 in New Delhi, India. URBAN CLIMATE 2021; 40:101013. [PMID: 34722140 PMCID: PMC8549199 DOI: 10.1016/j.uclim.2021.101013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2020] [Revised: 10/05/2021] [Accepted: 10/23/2021] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
Novel Coronavirus disease has affected almost all the countries; which leads to the pandemic, impacting adversely on environment. The impact on environment during pre-and during lockdowns needs an attention to correlate the pollutants from industrial emissions and other factors. Therefore, the current study demonstrates the changes in fine particulate matter PM2.5, PM10 and effect on air quality during lockdown. The highest reduction was observed in lockdown I (25 March - 14 April) as compared to others lockdowns (between 15 April and 31st May 2020) due to the complete shutdown of industrial, transport, and construction activities. A significant reduction in PM2.5 and PM10 from 114.27 μg/m3 and 194.48 μg/m3 for pre-lockdown period to 41.41 μg/m3 and 86.81 μg/m3 for lockdown I was observed. The levels of air quality index fall under satisfactory category for lockdown I whereas satisfactory to moderate category for other lockdowns. The present study revealed a strong correlation between PM2.5 and PM10 levels during the pre-lockdown period (0.71) and through lockdown IV (0.76), which indicate that change in the PM10 level influences the PM2.5 level greatly. The findings of the present study could be scaled up nationwide and might be useful in formulating air pollution reduction policies in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Pramod Kumar
- Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India
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169
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Xin Y, Shao S, Wang Z, Xu Z, Li H. COVID-2019 lockdown in Beijing: A rare opportunity to analyze the contribution rate of road traffic to air pollutants. SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY 2021; 75:102989. [PMID: 34631394 PMCID: PMC8490182 DOI: 10.1016/j.scs.2021.102989] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2020] [Revised: 04/26/2021] [Accepted: 04/28/2021] [Indexed: 05/16/2023]
Abstract
In Beijing, the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of COVID-2019 has led to a sharp drop in road traffic. This provides an opportunity to quantify the contribution rate of road traffic to PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations. This paper creatively puts forward the concept of the Maximum Possible Contribution Rate (MPCR) and estimates the MPCR of road traffic to PM2.5 and NO2 by analyzing the daily air pollution data and road traffic data in Beijing from January 24 to March 31, 2020 and the same period in 2019. The findings of this paper include: The decrease in SO2 concentration during the lockdown indicates a reduction in pollutant emissions from industry and households. During the lockdown, road traffic in Beijing reduced by 46.9 %, while the concentrations of PM2.5 and NO2 in the atmosphere reduced by 5.6 % and 29.2 % respectively. The MPCR of road traffic to PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations are 11.9 % and 62.3 %, respectively. The concentration of O3 did not increase significantly with the decrease of PM2.5 and NO2 concentrations. The findings of this paper provide a reference for city managers to evaluate the contribution rate of Beijing's road traffic to air pollutants and to formulate reasonable emission reduction policies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yalu Xin
- China Academy of Building Research, Beijing, 100013, China
- State Key Laboratory of Building Safety and Built Environment, Beijing, 100013, China
| | - Shuangquan Shao
- School of Energy and Power Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China
| | - Zhichao Wang
- China Academy of Building Research, Beijing, 100013, China
- State Key Laboratory of Building Safety and Built Environment, Beijing, 100013, China
| | - Zhaowei Xu
- China Academy of Building Research, Beijing, 100013, China
- State Key Laboratory of Building Safety and Built Environment, Beijing, 100013, China
| | - Hao Li
- China Academy of Building Research, Beijing, 100013, China
- State Key Laboratory of Building Safety and Built Environment, Beijing, 100013, China
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170
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Ahmed MM, Hoque ME, Rahman S, Roy PK, Alam F, Rahman MM, Rahman MM, Hopke PK. Prediction of COVID-19 Cases from the Nexus of Air Quality and Meteorological Phenomena: Bangladesh Perspective. EARTH SYSTEMS AND ENVIRONMENT 2021; 6:307-325. [PMID: 34870076 PMCID: PMC8627582 DOI: 10.1007/s41748-021-00278-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2021] [Revised: 10/13/2021] [Accepted: 11/09/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
An integrated approach was used to estimate the number of COVID-19 patients related to air quality and meteorological phenomena. Additionally, the air quality during pre-lockdown, lockdown, and post-lockdown stages of the COVID-19 pandemic was assessed to determine the effect of the infection containment measures taken in Bangladesh during the pandemic. The air quality was assessed based on measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), black carbon, particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), and aerosol optical depth. Time-averaged maps of these parameters have been generated from NASA's (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) website. Values of these parameters have also been collected from a continuous air monitoring station (CAMS) located in Bangladesh's north-western city Rajshahi. The comparison shows that lockdown during the pandemic has brought significant improvements in air quality. However, the improvement was not sustained, since rapid increases in the air pollutant concentrations were observed in the post-lockdown period. Furthermore, Pearson correlation coefficients between each air quality variable and the daily new COVID-19 case rates were calculated. Different meteorological variables during the same time periods were determined to observe the variation in Rajshahi city. Relationships of these variables with the case rates were also established. Additionally, statistical analyses of the obtained data have been conducted for the measured variables using the Kruskal-Wallis test to assess the differences in the observed data among the pre-lockdown, lockdown, and post-lockdown periods. Dunn's "Q" test was employed to test if the variables showed significance statistical difference during the Kruskal-Wallis test for pairwise comparisons. From the study, it has been observed that both meteorological variables and air quality parameters have significant relationship with daily new COVID-19 case rates. Both positive and negative associations of these parameters with the COVID-19 case rates have been observed. Very high air pollution has been observed in the post-lockdown period. Thus, it is recommended that appropriate authorities undertake corrective measures to protect the environment in cities with large populations. This study provides guidance for decision makers and health officials for future research and potentially reducing the spread of COVID-19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mim Mashrur Ahmed
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology, Rajshahi, Bangladesh
| | - Md. Emdadul Hoque
- Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology, Rajshahi, Bangladesh
| | - Shahanaj Rahman
- Department of Environment, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Proshanta Kumar Roy
- Department of Environment, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Firoz Alam
- School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
| | | | - Md. Mostafizur Rahman
- Institute for Future Transport and Cities, School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Automotive Engineering, Coventry University, Coventry, UK
| | - Philip K. Hopke
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY USA
- Institute for a Sustainable Environment, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY USA
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171
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Spatiotemporal Evolution and Regional Differences in the Production-Living-Ecological Space of the Urban Agglomeration in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2021; 18:ijerph182312497. [PMID: 34886223 PMCID: PMC8657082 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182312497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2021] [Revised: 11/19/2021] [Accepted: 11/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
The urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, which is the second largest urban agglomeration in China, represents a typical land space range of ecological vulnerability in China. Large differences occur in economic development mode between resource- and non-resource-based cities in this basin area. Accurate identification of the evolution and regional differences in the production-living-ecological space (PLES) is very important in order to elucidate the development and utilization of land space in the region. At present, relevant research has largely focused on the classification and determination of PLES temporal and spatial patterns. Temporal and spatial pattern research has mainly considered a single scale of administrative division, whereas fewer studies have analyzed the temporal and spatial patterns and regional differences in the PLES in ecologically fragile natural watersheds. Therefore, based on PLES classification, the regional differences in the PLES between two types of cities in the basin are measured via the Theil index and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA). First, the ecological space (ES) of these two types of cities in the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River is compressed by the production space (PS) and living space (LS), in which the ES of resource-based cities is compressed for a longer period, and the phenomenon involving PS compression by the LS and ES mainly occurs in non-resource-based cities within the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Second, the PLES of these two types of cities exhibits the characteristics of spatial aggregation, and high- and low-density areas of the PLES remain relatively stable. Third, the regional differences in the PLES of the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River mainly originate from intraregional differences. The PLES of these two types of cities in the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River is more sensitive to changes in economic development than to those in the population distribution.
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172
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Crilley LR, Iranpour YE, Young CJ. Importance of meteorology and chemistry in determining air pollutant levels during COVID-19 lockdown in Indian cities. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE. PROCESSES & IMPACTS 2021; 23:1718-1728. [PMID: 34734948 DOI: 10.1039/d1em00187f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Indian cities can experience severe air pollution, and the reduction in activity during the first national COVID-19 lockdown (2020) offered a natural experiment to study the contribution of local sources. The current work aimed to quantify the changes due to the lockdown in NOx, O3 and PM2.5 in two contrasting cities in India (Delhi and Hyderabad) using a boosted regression tree model to account for the influence of meteorology. The median NOx and PM2.5 concentrations were observed to decrease after lockdown in both cities, up to 57% and 75% for PM2.5 and NOx, respectively when compared to previous years. After normalization due to meteorology the calculated reduction after lockdown for PM2.5 was small (<8%) in both cities, and was likely less attributable to changes in local emissions, but rather due changes in background levels (i.e. regional source(s)). The reduction of NOx due to lockdown varied by site (on average 5-30%), likely reflecting differences in relative proximity of local sources to the monitoring site, demonstrating the key influence of meteorology on ambient levels post-lockdown. Ozone was observed to increase after lockdown at both sites in Delhi, likely due to changes in relative amounts of precursor concentrations promoting ozone production, suggesting a volatile organic compound (VOC)-limited regime in Delhi. Thus, the calculated reduction in air pollutants due to lockdown in the current work cannot be extrapolated to be solely from a reduction in emissions and instead reflects the overall change in ambient levels, as meteorology and atmospheric chemical processes also contributed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leigh R Crilley
- Department of Chemistry, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
| | | | - Cora J Young
- Department of Chemistry, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
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173
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Implications of COVID-19 Restriction Measures in Urban Air Quality of Thessaloniki, Greece: A Machine Learning Approach. ATMOSPHERE 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/atmos12111500] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Following the rapid spread of COVID-19, a lockdown was imposed in Thessaloniki, Greece, resulting in an abrupt reduction of human activities. To unravel the impact of restrictions on the urban air quality of Thessaloniki, NO2 and O3 observations are compared against the business-as-usual (BAU) concentrations for the lockdown period. BAU conditions are modeled, applying the XGBoost (eXtreme Gradient Boosting) machine learning algorithm on air quality and meteorological surface measurements, and reanalysis data. A reduction in NO2 concentrations is found during the lockdown period due to the restriction policies at both AGSOFIA and EGNATIA stations of −24.9 [−26.6, −23.2]% and −18.4 [−19.6, −17.1]%, respectively. A reverse effect is revealed for O3 concentrations at AGSOFIA with an increase of 12.7 [10.8, 14.8]%, reflecting the reduced O3 titration by NOx. The implications of COVID-19 lockdowns in the urban air quality of Thessaloniki are in line with the results of several recent studies for other urban areas around the world, highlighting the necessity of more sophisticated emission control strategies for urban air quality management.
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174
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Rahman W, Beig G, Barman N, Hopke PK, Hoque RR. Ambient ozone over mid-Brahmaputra Valley, India: effects of local emissions and atmospheric transport on the photostationary state. ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT 2021; 193:790. [PMID: 34762170 PMCID: PMC8580808 DOI: 10.1007/s10661-021-09572-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2021] [Accepted: 10/26/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
This study presents the characteristics of ground level atmospheric ozone (O3) over the rural mid-Brahmaputra Valley region of the northeastern India. Ozone and oxides of nitrogen (NOx = NO + NO2) concentration data were obtained from continuous measurement of O3 and NOx housed at the MAPAN-AQM station at Tezpur University. The meteorological parameters were obtained from the same station. The diel, monthly, and seasonal variations of O3 were studied. The O3-NOx photostationary state (PS) was carefully examined and it was found that the net O3 concertation deviated substantially from the PS during the winter season. The deviation could be attributed to local biomass burning, biogenic VOC emission from forest and agriculture, and long-range transport of peroxyacyl nitrate (PAN). The long-range transport has been ascertained by examining the ventilation coefficients (VC), which correlated with the steep growth of net O3 concentrations in the morning hours. The HYSPLIT air mass back trajectories were used in concentration-weighted trajectory (CWT) analyses of O3 to assess the long-range regional transport of O3 precursors, which positively influenced local O3 concentrations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Warisha Rahman
- Department of Environmental Science, Tezpur University, Tezpur, 784028, India
| | - Gufran Beig
- Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, 411004, Pune, India
| | - Nivedita Barman
- Department of Environmental Science, Tezpur University, Tezpur, 784028, India
| | - Philip K Hopke
- Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA
- Center for Air Resources Engineering and Science, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, 13699, USA
| | - Raza R Hoque
- Department of Environmental Science, Tezpur University, Tezpur, 784028, India.
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175
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de Souza A, Abreu MC, de Oliveira-Júnior JF, Aviv-Sharon E, Fernandes WA, Aristone F. Variations in the tropospheric concentration of NO 2 in the central west of Brazil, MS, and their relationship with the COVID-19. AIR QUALITY, ATMOSPHERE, & HEALTH 2021; 15:1169-1182. [PMID: 34777630 PMCID: PMC8573569 DOI: 10.1007/s11869-021-01121-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2021] [Accepted: 10/21/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) started in late 2019 in Wuhan, China. Subsequently, the disease was disseminated in several cities around the world, where measures were taken to control the spread of the virus through the adoption of quarantine (social isolation and closure of commercial sectors). This article analyzed the environmental impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, regarding the variations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in the atmosphere. NO2 data from the AURA satellite, in the period before the beginning of the epidemic (2005-2019) and during the adoption of the preventive and control measures of COVID-19 in 2020, were acquired and compared. The results obtained from the analysis showed that the blockade from COVID-19, beginning in March 2020, improved air quality in the short term, but as soon as coal consumption in power plants and refineries returned to normal levels (since June 2020), due to the resumption of works, the pollution levels returned to the level of the previous years of 2020. NO2 levels showed a significant decrease, since they were mainly associated with the decrease in economic growth and transport restrictions that led to a change in energy consumption and a reduction in emissions. This study can complement the scientific community and policy makers for environmental protection and public management, not only to assess the impact of the outbreak on air quality, but also for its effectiveness as a simple alternative program of action to improve air quality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amaury de Souza
- Federal University of Mato Grosso Do Sul, C.P. 549, Campo Grande, MS 79070-900 Brazil
| | | | | | - Elinor Aviv-Sharon
- Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, 7610001 Rehovot, Israel
| | - Widinei Alves Fernandes
- Physics Department, Federal University of Mato Grosso Do Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso Do Sul. 79070-900 Brazil
| | - Flavio Aristone
- Physics Department, Federal University of Mato Grosso Do Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso Do Sul. 79070-900 Brazil
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176
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Benchrif A, Wheida A, Tahri M, Shubbar RM, Biswas B. Air quality during three covid-19 lockdown phases: AQI, PM2.5 and NO2 assessment in cities with more than 1 million inhabitants. SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY 2021; 74:103170. [PMID: 34290956 PMCID: PMC8277957 DOI: 10.1016/j.scs.2021.103170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2021] [Revised: 07/07/2021] [Accepted: 07/08/2021] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
Implemented quarantine due to the ongoing novel coronavirus (agent of COVID-19) has an immense impact on human mobility and economic activities as well as on air quality. Since then, and due to the drastic reduction in pollution levels in cities across the world, a large discussion has been magnetized regarding if the lockdown is an adequate alternative counter-measure for enhancing air quality. This paper aimed at studying the Air Quality Index (AQI), PM2.5, and tropospheric NO2 levels in three lockdown phases (before, during, and after) among 21 cities around the world. Simple before/after comparison approach was carried out to capture the declining trend in air pollution levels caused by the lockdown restrictions. The results showed that the frequency distribution for NO2 is more variable than that for PM2.5, and the distribution is flatter from 2020 to the baseline 2018-2019 period. Besides, AQI, in most of the cities, has varied from high to mild pollution during the lockdown and was moderate before. Although during the lockdown, a reduction of 3 to 58% of daily NO2 concentrations was observed across the cities, an increase was detected in three cities including Abidjan (1%), Conakry (3%), and Chengdu (10%). Despite this mixed trend, the NO2 time series clearly showed the effect of the unlocking phase where the NO2 levels increased in almost all cities. Similarly, PM2.5 concentrations have increased in the post-lockdown period, with 50% of the cities reporting significant positive differences between the lock and the unlock phase. Then, the levels of PM2.5 were higher at the pre-lockdown phase than at any other time exhibiting a "U" shape. In addition, during Ramadan, it was noted that altered patterns of daily activities in some Islamic cities have a significant negative impact on air quality.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ali Wheida
- Theoretical Physics Department, Physics Division, National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt
| | - Mounia Tahri
- National Centre for Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology (CNESTEN), Morocco
| | - Ramiz M Shubbar
- Midland Refineries Company (MRC), Daura Refinery, Baghdad, Iraq
| | - Biplab Biswas
- Department of Geography, The University of Burdwan, Burdwan, India
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177
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Cai WJ, Wang HW, Wu CL, Lu KF, Peng ZR, He HD. Characterizing the interruption-recovery patterns of urban air pollution under the COVID-19 lockdown in China. BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT 2021; 205:108231. [PMID: 34393324 PMCID: PMC8354860 DOI: 10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108231] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2021] [Revised: 07/30/2021] [Accepted: 08/04/2021] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to study the effects of urban lockdown policies on the variation in pollutant concentrations and to characterize the recovery patterns of urban air pollution under the interruption of COVID-19 lockdown policies. In this paper, interruption-recovery models and regression discontinuity design were developed to characterize air pollution interruption-recovery patterns and analyze environmental impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown, using air pollution data from four Chinese metropolises (i.e., Shanghai, Wuhan, Tianjin, and Guangzhou). The results revealed the air pollutant interruption-recovery curve represented by the three lockdown response periods (Level I, Level II and Level III) during COVID-19. The curve decreased during Level I (A 25.3%-48.8% drop in the concentration of NO2 has been observed in the four metropolises compared with the same period in 2018-2019.), then recovered around reopening, but decreased again during Level III. Moreover, the interruption-recovery curve of the year-on-year air pollution difference suggests a process of first decreasing during Level I and gradually recovering to a new equilibrium during Level III (e.g., the unit cumulative difference of NO2 mass concentrations in Shanghai was 21.7, 22.5, 11.3 (μg/m3) during Level I, II, and III and other metropolises shared similar results). Our findings reveal general trends in the air quality externality of different lockdown policies, hence could provide valuable insights into air pollutant interruption-recovery patterns and clear scientific guides for policymakers to estimate the effect of different lockdown policies on urban air quality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wan-Jin Cai
- Center for Intelligent Transportation Systems and Unmanned Aerial Systems Applications Research, State-Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Hong-Wei Wang
- Center for Intelligent Transportation Systems and Unmanned Aerial Systems Applications Research, State-Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Cui-Lin Wu
- Center for Intelligent Transportation Systems and Unmanned Aerial Systems Applications Research, State-Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
| | - Kai-Fa Lu
- International Center for Adaptation Planning and Design, College of Design, Construction and Planning, University of Florida, PO Box 115706, Gainesville, FL, 32611-5706, USA
| | - Zhong-Ren Peng
- International Center for Adaptation Planning and Design, College of Design, Construction and Planning, University of Florida, PO Box 115706, Gainesville, FL, 32611-5706, USA
| | - Hong-Di He
- Center for Intelligent Transportation Systems and Unmanned Aerial Systems Applications Research, State-Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, School of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China
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178
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Campbell PC, Tong D, Tang Y, Baker B, Lee P, Saylor R, Stein A, Ma S, Lamsal L, Qu Z. Impacts of the COVID-19 economic slowdown on ozone pollution in the U.S. ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT (OXFORD, ENGLAND : 1994) 2021; 264:118713. [PMID: 34522157 PMCID: PMC8430042 DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2021.118713] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2021] [Revised: 08/02/2021] [Accepted: 09/02/2021] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
In this work, we use observations and experimental emissions in a version of NOAA's National Air Quality Forecasting Capability to show that the COVID-19 economic slowdown led to disproportionate impacts on near-surface ozone concentrations across the contiguous U.S. (CONUS). The data-fusion methodology used here includes both U.S. EPA Air Quality System ground and the NASA Aura satellite Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) NO2 observations to infer the representative emissions changes due to the COVID-19 economic slowdown in the U.S. Results show that there were widespread decreases in anthropogenic (e.g., NOx) emissions in the U.S. during March-June 2020, which led to widespread decreases in ozone concentrations in the rural regions that are NOx-limited, but also some localized increases near urban centers that are VOC-limited. Later in June-September, there were smaller decreases, and potentially some relative increases in NOx emissions for many areas of the U.S. (e.g., south-southeast) that led to more extensive increases in ozone concentrations that are partly in agreement with observations. The widespread NOx emissions changes also alters the O3 photochemical formation regimes, most notably the NOx emissions decreases in March-April, which can enhance (mitigate) the NOx-limited (VOC-limited) regimes in different regions of CONUS. The average of all AirNow hourly O3 changes for 2020-2019 range from about +1 to -4 ppb during March-September, and are associated with predominantly urban monitoring sites that demonstrate considerable spatiotemporal variability for the 2020 ozone changes compared to the previous five years individually (2015-2019). The simulated maximum values of the average O3 changes for March-September range from about +8 to -4 ppb (or +40 to -10%). Results of this work have implications for the use of widespread controls of anthropogenic emissions, particularly those from mobile sources, used to curb ozone pollution under the current meteorological and climate conditions in the U.S.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick C Campbell
- Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems, Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
- Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Air Resources Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Daniel Tong
- Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems, Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
- Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Air Resources Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, College Park, MD, USA
- Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
| | - Youhua Tang
- Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems, Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
- Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Air Resources Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, College Park, MD, USA
- Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
| | - Barry Baker
- Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems, Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
- Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Air Resources Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Pius Lee
- Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Air Resources Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Rick Saylor
- Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Air Resources Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Ariel Stein
- Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Air Resources Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Siqi Ma
- Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
| | - Lok Lamsal
- Universities Space Research Association, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
| | - Zhen Qu
- Harvard University, Department of Engineering and Applied Science, Cambridge, MA, USA
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179
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Ding J, Dai Q, Li Y, Han S, Zhang Y, Feng Y. Impact of meteorological condition changes on air quality and particulate chemical composition during the COVID-19 lockdown. J Environ Sci (China) 2021; 109:45-56. [PMID: 34607673 PMCID: PMC7906520 DOI: 10.1016/j.jes.2021.02.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2020] [Revised: 02/17/2021] [Accepted: 02/19/2021] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
Stringent quarantine measures during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown period (January 23, 2020 to March 15, 2020) have resulted in a distinct decrease in anthropogenic source emissions in North China Plain compared to the paralleled period of 2019. Particularly, 22.7% decrease in NO2 and 3.0% increase of O3 was observed in Tianjin, nonlinear relationship between O3 generation and NO2 implied that synergetic control of NOx and VOCs is needed. Deteriorating meteorological condition during the COVID-19 lockdown obscured the actual PM2.5 reduction. Fireworks transport in 2020 Spring Festival (SF) triggered regional haze pollution. PM2.5 during the COVID-19 lockdown only reduced by 5.6% in Tianjin. Here we used the dispersion coefficient to normalize the measured PM2.5 (DN-PM2.5), aiming to eliminate the adverse meteorological impact and roughly estimate the actual PM2.5 reduction, which reduced by 17.7% during the COVID-19 lockdown. In terms of PM2.5 chemical composition, significant NO3- increase was observed during the COVID-19 lockdown. However, as a tracer of atmospheric oxidation capacity, odd oxygen (Ox = NO2 + O3) was observed to reduce during the COVID-19 lockdown, whereas relative humidity (RH), specific humidity and aerosol liquid water content (ALWC) were observed with noticeable enhancement. Nitrogen oxidation rate (NOR) was observed to increase at higher specific humidity and ALWC, especially in the haze episode occurred during 2020SF, high air humidity and obvious nitrate generation was observed. Anomalously enhanced air humidity may response for the nitrate increase during the COVID-19 lockdown period.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Ding
- Tianjin Environmental Meteorological Center, Tianjin 300074, China; CMA-NKU Cooperative Laboratory for Atmospheric Environment-Health Research, Tianjin 300074, China
| | - Qili Dai
- State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Urban Ambient Air Particulate Matter Pollution Prevention and Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China; CMA-NKU Cooperative Laboratory for Atmospheric Environment-Health Research, Tianjin 300074, China
| | - Yafei Li
- State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Urban Ambient Air Particulate Matter Pollution Prevention and Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China; CMA-NKU Cooperative Laboratory for Atmospheric Environment-Health Research, Tianjin 300074, China
| | - Suqin Han
- Tianjin Environmental Meteorological Center, Tianjin 300074, China; CMA-NKU Cooperative Laboratory for Atmospheric Environment-Health Research, Tianjin 300074, China.
| | - Yufen Zhang
- State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Urban Ambient Air Particulate Matter Pollution Prevention and Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China; CMA-NKU Cooperative Laboratory for Atmospheric Environment-Health Research, Tianjin 300074, China.
| | - Yinchang Feng
- State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Urban Ambient Air Particulate Matter Pollution Prevention and Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China; CMA-NKU Cooperative Laboratory for Atmospheric Environment-Health Research, Tianjin 300074, China
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180
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Citizens’ Perceptions in Relation to Transport Systems and Infrastructures: A Nationwide Study in the Dominican Republic. INFRASTRUCTURES 2021. [DOI: 10.3390/infrastructures6110153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
One of the challenges currently faced by emerging countries is to get their citizens to decide to use sustainable transport for their regular trips, in order to reduce the current vehicular pollution rates. The objective of this descriptive research is to examine the perceptions of Dominicans regarding the state of the country’s transport systems and road infrastructure. For this purpose, a nationwide survey procedure was performed. This cross-sectional research used the data retrieved from a sample of 1260 citizens aged over 18, proportional in gender, age, habitat, and province of the Dominican Republic. The results showed how Dominicans believe that, compared to other road features, pedestrian roads and public transport vehicles remain in a very poor condition. Further, citizens report to be more interested about the improvement of road infrastructures than in the implementation of any other set of measures performed to promote sustainable road mobility, including those related with alternative transport means. Finally, this study claims for the need of fostering educational, communicative and participative actions and measures aimed at increasing the value given to sustainable transportation, and the relevance of integrate potential structural and vehicular improvements with those related to human behavior in mobility.
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181
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Liu J, Law AWK, Duru O. Assessment of COVID-19 pandemic effects on ship pollutant emissions in major international seaports. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2021:112246. [PMID: 34699761 PMCID: PMC8539223 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.112246] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2021] [Revised: 10/12/2021] [Accepted: 10/17/2021] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
This study aims to investigate the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic effects and associated restrictive rules on ship activities and pollutant emissions (CO2, SOX, NOX, PM, CO, CH4) in four major seaports, namely the Ports of Singapore, Long Beach, Los Angeles, and Hamburg. We used 2019 as the baseline year to show the business-as-usual emission and compared with the estimated quantity during the July 2020-July 2021 pandemic period. We also project future ship emissions from August 2021-August 2022 to illustrate two potential port congestion scenarios due to COVID-19. The results show that the ship emissions in all four ports generally increased by an average of 79% because of the prolonged turnaround time in port. Importantly, majority of ship emissions occurred during the extended hoteling time at berth and anchorage areas as longer operational times were needed due to pandemic-related delays, with increases ranging from 27 to 123% in the total emissions across ports. The most affected shipping segments were the container ships and dry bulk carriers which the total emissions of all pollutants increased by an average of 94-142% compared with 2019. Overall, the results of this study provide a comprehensive review of the ship emission outlook amid the pandemic uncertainty.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiahui Liu
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Singapore
| | - Adrian Wing-Keung Law
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Singapore.
| | - Okan Duru
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798, Singapore
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182
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Gangoiti G, de Blas M, Gómez MC, Rodríguez-García A, Torre-Pascual E, García-Ruiz E, Sáez de Cámara E, Zuazo I, García JA, Valdenebro V. Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown in a European Regional Monitoring Network (Spain): Are We Free from Pollution Episodes? INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2021; 18:ijerph182111042. [PMID: 34769562 PMCID: PMC8583473 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2021] [Revised: 10/06/2021] [Accepted: 10/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
Abstract
The impact of the lockdown, during the period from March to June in 2020, upon the air quality of the Basque Country in northern Spain is analyzed. The evaluation accounts for the meteorology of the period. Daily and sub-daily analysis of aerosol and ozone records show that the territory was repeatedly affected by episodes of pollutants from outer regions. Three episodes of PM10 and ten of PM2.5 were caused by transported anthropogenic European sulfates, African dust, and wildland fires. The region, with a varied orographic climatology, shows high and diverse industrial activity. Urban and interurban road traffic of the region decreased by 49% and 53%, respectively, whereas industrial activity showed a lower reduction of 20%. Consequently, the average concentrations of NO2 in the cities during the period fell to 12.4 µg·m−3 (−45%). Ozone showed up to five exceedances of the WHOAQG for the daily maximum 8-h average in both rural and urban sites, associated with transport through France and the Bay of Biscay, under periods of European blocking anticyclones. However, averages showed a moderate decrease (−11%) in rural environments, in line with the precursor reductions, and disparate changes in the cities, which reproduced the weekend effect of their historical records. The PM10 decreased less than expected (−10% and −21%, in the urban and rural environments, respectively), probably caused by the modest decrease of industrial activity around urban sites and favorable meteorology for secondary aerosol formation, which could also influence the lower changes observed in the PM2.5 (−1% and +3% at the urban and rural sites, respectively). Consequently, in a future low NOx traffic emission scenario, the inter-regional PM and ozone control will require actions across various sectors, including the industry and common pollution control strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gotzon Gangoiti
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +34-94-601-4088; Fax: +34-94-601-7800
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183
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Hernandez-Garcia E, Chrysikou E, Kalea AZ. The Interplay between Housing Environmental Attributes and Design Exposures and Psychoneuroimmunology Profile-An Exploratory Review and Analysis Paper in the Cancer Survivors' Mental Health Morbidity Context. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2021; 18:10891. [PMID: 34682637 PMCID: PMC8536084 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182010891] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2021] [Revised: 10/08/2021] [Accepted: 10/14/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Adult cancer survivors have an increased prevalence of mental health comorbidities and other adverse late-effects interdependent with mental illness outcomes compared with the general population. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) heralds an era of renewed call for actions to identify sustainable modalities to facilitate the constructs of cancer survivorship care and health care delivery through physiological supportive domestic spaces. Building on the concept of therapeutic architecture, psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) indicators-with the central role in low-grade systemic inflammation-are associated with major psychiatric disorders and late effects of post-cancer treatment. Immune disturbances might mediate the effects of environmental determinants on behaviour and mental disorders. Whilst attention is paid to the non-objective measurements for examining the home environmental domains and mental health outcomes, little is gathered about the multidimensional effects on physiological responses. This exploratory review presents a first analysis of how addressing the PNI outcomes serves as a catalyst for therapeutic housing research. We argue the crucial component of housing in supporting the sustainable primary care and public health-based cancer survivorship care model, particularly in the psychopathology context. Ultimately, we illustrate a series of interventions aiming at how housing environmental attributes can trigger PNI profile changes and discuss the potential implications in the non-pharmacological treatment of cancer survivors and patients with mental morbidities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Hernandez-Garcia
- The Bartlett Real Estate Institute, The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK;
| | - Evangelia Chrysikou
- The Bartlett Real Estate Institute, The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK;
- Clinic of Social and Family Medicine, Department of Social Medicine, University of Crete, 700 13 Heraklion, Greece
| | - Anastasia Z. Kalea
- Division of Medicine, University College London, London WC1E 6JF, UK;
- Institute of Cardiovascular Science, University College London, London WC1E 6HX, UK
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184
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Satheesh Kumar S, Narayana Rao T. The impact of improved air-quality due to COVID-19 lockdown on surface meteorological parameters and planetary boundary layer over Gadanki, a tropical rural site in India. ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH 2021; 261:105738. [PMID: 36540718 PMCID: PMC9756893 DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosres.2021.105738] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2021] [Revised: 06/07/2021] [Accepted: 06/17/2021] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
The nation-wide lockdowns imposed in India during March--May 2020 (in four phases) to curb the spread of the novel Corona virus, greatly enhanced the near-surface air-quality due to lowering of industrial, transport and human activities. The present study focuses on the changes in the vertical structure of aerosol concentration and how those changes impacted radiation balance, the planetary boundary layer (PBL) height and surface meteorological parameters. Instrumented tower and Ceilometer measurements made at Gadanki (13.45°N, 79.18°E), located in a rural environment, coupled with satellite-derived Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) data have been used to understand the changes in lockdown period. Significant reduction in backscatter density during the lockdown compared to 2019 indicates that aerosol reduction during the lockdown is not only limited to the surface, rather observed in the entire PBL. Except for the fourth phase of lockdown during which several relaxations have been given for vehicular movement and other anthropogenic activities, the reduction in backscatter density is seen in all phases of lockdown. However, the reduction is prominently seen in the second and third phases. The AOD also reduced by 40% around Gadanki, comparable to that of in urban regions. Due to the reduction in aerosols during the lockdown period, the insolation increases by 60 Wm-2, which is expected to increase the temperature. However, the increased loss of long-wave radiation (due to reduction in trapping gases) and more rain events during the lockdown period decreased the temperature by ~1 °C. Measurements also suggest that the most of net radiation is partitioned into the latent heat flux increasing the humidity and lowering the PBL height (due to reduced strength of thermals and sensible heat flux).
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Affiliation(s)
- S Satheesh Kumar
- National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), Gadanki 517112, India
| | - T Narayana Rao
- National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), Gadanki 517112, India
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185
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Munir S, Luo Z, Dixon T. Comparing different approaches for assessing the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on urban air quality in Reading, UK. ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH 2021; 261:105730. [PMID: 36540719 PMCID: PMC9756911 DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosres.2021.105730] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2021] [Revised: 06/10/2021] [Accepted: 06/10/2021] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
Many studies investigated the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on urban air quality, but their adopted approaches have varied and there is no consensus as to which approach should be used. In this paper we compare three of the main approaches and assess their performance using both estimated and measured data from several air quality monitoring stations (AQMS) in Reading, Berkshire UK. The approaches are: (1) Sequential approach - comparing pre-lockdown and lockdown periods 2020; (2) Parallel approach - comparing 2019 and 2020 for the equivalent time of the lockdown period; and (3) Machine learning modelling approach - predicting pollution levels for the lockdown period using business as usual (BAU) scenario and comparing with the observations. The parallel and machine learning approaches resulted in relative higher reductions and both showed strong correlation (0.97) and less error with each other. The sequential approach showed less reduction in NO and NOx, showed positive gain in PM10 and NO2 at most of the sites and demonstrated weak correlation with the other two approaches, and is not recommended for such analysis. Overall, the sequential approach showed -14, +4, -32, and + 56% change, the parallel approach showed -46, -43, -43 and + 7% change, and the machine learning approach showed -47, -44, -38 and + 5% change in NOx, NO2, NO and PM10 concentrations, respectively. The pollution roses demonstrated that the UK received easterly polluted winds from the central and eastern Europe, promoting secondary particulates and O3 formation during the lockdown. Changes in pollutant concentrations vary both in space and time according to the approach used, environment type of the monitoring site and the data type (e.g., deweathered vs. raw data). Therefore, the reported results (here or elsewhere) should be viewed in light of these factors before making any conclusion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Said Munir
- Department of Construction Management & Engineering, School of the Built Environment, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AW, UK
| | - Zhiwen Luo
- Department of Construction Management & Engineering, School of the Built Environment, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AW, UK
| | - Tim Dixon
- Department of Construction Management & Engineering, School of the Built Environment, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AW, UK
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186
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Shi K, Weng J. Impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic on merchant ship activity and pollution emissions in Shanghai port waters. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 790:148198. [PMID: 34098281 PMCID: PMC9757726 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2021] [Revised: 05/20/2021] [Accepted: 05/28/2021] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
This study aims to evaluate impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic on merchant ship activities and corresponding atmospheric pollutant emissions in Shanghai port waters. Comparing AIS data from February 2019 and from February 2020, it is found that the merchant ship count and utilization frequency are reduced during the epidemic period. The epidemic could result in longer ship turnaround times because of more operation time for berthing and anchoring activities. Ship emission comparison results reveal that the cargo ship emissions are significantly reduced while container ships and tankers produce a slightly decreased emissions resulting by strict COVID-19 quarantine measures. In addition, the unit ship emission intensity is greatly reduced for ships which are under the normal cruising status while berthing and anchoring operations are associated with increased ship emissions. This implies that it is urgent to promote the use of shore power equipment for merchant ships during the epidemic period.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kun Shi
- College of Transport and Communications, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai 201306, China
| | - Jinxian Weng
- College of Transport and Communications, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai 201306, China.
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187
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Zhang F, Han Y, Cong B. Reflections Based on Pollution Changes Brought by COVID-19 Lockdown in Shanghai. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2021; 18:10613. [PMID: 34682358 PMCID: PMC8536036 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182010613] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/07/2021] [Revised: 09/28/2021] [Accepted: 09/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
COVID-19 and its variants have been changing the world. The spread of variants brings severe effects to the global economy and to human's lives and health, as well as to society. Lockdown is proven to be effective in stopping the spread. It also provides a chance to study natural environmental changes with humanity's limited interference. This paper aims to evaluate the impact of lockdown on five major airborne pollutants, i.e., NO2, SO2, O3, PM2.5 and PM10, in the three different functional regions of Chongming, Xuhui and Jinshan of Shanghai. Changes in the same pollutants from the three regions over the same/different periods were all studied and compared. Overall, the COVID-19 lockdown has changed pollutant concentrations in the long and short terms. Concentrations of four pollutants decreased, except for that of earth surface O3, which increased. SO2 had significant correlations with all other pollutants. PM2.5 and PM10 are more externally input than locally produced. NO2, SO2 and PM levels sharply reduced in Jinshan and Xuhui due to the limited usage of fossil fuel. Lockdown improved the air quality. People now have a chance to rethink the value of life and the harmony between economic progress and environmental protection. This is helpful to establish sustainable societies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fang Zhang
- MNR Key Laboratory for Polar Science, Polar Research Institute of China, Shanghai 200136, China
| | - Yi Han
- Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK;
| | - Bailin Cong
- First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), Qingdao 266061, China
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188
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Ravina M, Esfandabadi ZS, Panepinto D, Zanetti M. Traffic-induced atmospheric pollution during the COVID-19 lockdown: Dispersion modeling based on traffic flow monitoring in Turin, Italy. JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION 2021; 317:128425. [PMID: 34316101 PMCID: PMC8297952 DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128425] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2021] [Revised: 05/20/2021] [Accepted: 07/21/2021] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic, as a worldwide threat to public health, has led many governments to impose mobility restrictions and adopt partial or full lockdown strategies in many regions to control the disease outbreak. Although these lockdowns are imposed to save public health by reducing the transmission of the virus, rather significant improvements of the air quality in this period have been reported in different areas, mainly as a result of the reduction in vehicular trips. In this research, the city of Turin in the northern part of Italy has been considered as the study area, because of its special meteorology and geographic location in one of the most polluted regions in Europe, and also its high density of vehicular emissions. A Lagrangian approach is applied to illustrate and analyze the effect of imposing full lockdown restrictions on the reduction of traffic-induced air pollution in the city. To do this, the real-time traffic flow during the lockdown period is recorded, and by utilizing CALPUFF version 7, the dispersion of PM2.5, Total Suspended Particulate (TSP), Benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), NOx, and Black Carbon (BC) emitted from all circulating vehicles during and before the lockdown period are compared. Results indicate that the concentration of pollutants generated by road traffic sources (including passenger cars, busses, heavy-duty vehicles, light-duty vehicles, mopeds, and motorcycles) reduced at least 70% (for PM2.5) up to 88.1% (for BaP) during the studied period. Concentration maps show that the concentration reduction varied in different areas of the town, mainly due to the characteristics and strength of the emission sources and the geophysical features of the area.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Ravina
- Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering (DIATI), Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca Degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy
| | - Zahra Shams Esfandabadi
- Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering (DIATI), Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca Degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy
- Energy Center Lab, Politecnico di Torino, Via Paolo Borsellino 38/16, 10138, Torino, Italy
| | - Deborah Panepinto
- Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering (DIATI), Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca Degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy
| | - Mariachiara Zanetti
- Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering (DIATI), Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca Degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Torino, Italy
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189
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Liu Y, Wang T, Stavrakou T, Elguindi N, Doumbia T, Granier C, Bouarar I, Gaubert B, Brasseur GP. Diverse response of surface ozone to COVID-19 lockdown in China. THE SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 2021; 789:147739. [PMID: 34323848 PMCID: PMC8123531 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147739] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2021] [Revised: 05/06/2021] [Accepted: 05/09/2021] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
Ozone (O3) is a key oxidant and pollutant in the lower atmosphere. Significant increases in surface O3 have been reported in many cities during the COVID-19 lockdown. Here we conduct comprehensive observation and modeling analyses of surface O3 across China for periods before and during the lockdown. We find that daytime O3 decreased in the subtropical south, in contrast to increases in most other regions. Meteorological changes and emission reductions both contributed to the O3 changes, with a larger impact from the former especially in central China. The plunge in nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission contributed to O3 increases in populated regions, whereas the reduction in volatile organic compounds (VOC) contributed to O3 decreases across the country. Due to a decreasing level of NOx saturation from north to south, the emission reduction in NOx (46%) and VOC (32%) contributed to net O3 increases in north China; the opposite effects of NOx decrease (49%) and VOC decrease (24%) balanced out in central China, whereas the comparable decreases (45-55%) in these two precursors contributed to net O3 declines in south China. Our study highlights the complex dependence of O3 on its precursors and the importance of meteorology in the short-term O3 variability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yiming Liu
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
| | - Tao Wang
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
| | | | | | | | - Claire Granier
- Laboratoire d'Aérologie, Toulouse, France; NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory and CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Idir Bouarar
- Environmental Modeling Group, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Benjamin Gaubert
- Atmospheric Chemistry Observations and Modeling Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA
| | - Guy P Brasseur
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China; Environmental Modeling Group, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany; Atmospheric Chemistry Observations and Modeling Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA
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190
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Qi J, Mo Z, Yuan B, Huang S, Huangfu Y, Wang Z, Li X, Yang S, Wang W, Zhao Y, Wang X, Wang W, Liu K, Shao M. An observation approach in evaluation of ozone production to precursor changes during the COVID-19 lockdown. ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT (OXFORD, ENGLAND : 1994) 2021; 262:118618. [PMID: 34276236 PMCID: PMC8277545 DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2021.118618] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2020] [Revised: 06/15/2021] [Accepted: 07/09/2021] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
The increase of surface ozone during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown in China has aroused great concern. In this study, we combine 1.5 years of measurements for ozone, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and nitrogen oxide (NOX) at four sites to investigate the effect of COVID-19 lockdown on surface ozone in Dongguan, an industrial city in southern China. We show that the average concentrations of NOX and VOCs decreased by 70%-77% and 54%-68% during the lockdown compared to pre-lockdown, respectively. Based on the source apportionment of VOCs, the contribution of industrial solvent use reduced significantly (86%-94%) during the lockdown, and climbed back slowly along with the re-opening of the industry after lockdown. A slight increase in mean ozone concentration (3%-14%) was observed during the lockdown. The rise of ozone was the combined effect of substantial increase at night (58%-91%) and small reduction in the daytime (1%-17%). These conflicting observations in ozone response between day and night to emission change call for a more detailed approach to diagnostic ozone production response with precursor changes, rather than directly comparing absolute concentrations. We propose that the ratio of daily Ox (i.e. ozone + NO2) enhancement to solar radiation can provide a diagnostic parameter for ozone production response during the lockdown period. Smaller ratio of daily OX (ozone + NO2) enhancement to solar radiation during the lockdown were observed from the long-term measurements in Dongguan, suggesting significantly weakened photochemistry during the lockdown successfully reduces local ozone production. Our proposed approach can provide an evaluation of ozone production response to precursor changes from restrictions of social activities during COVID-19 epidemic and also other regional air quality abatement measures (e.g. public mega-events) around the globe.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jipeng Qi
- Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 511443, China
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Joint Laboratory of Collaborative Innovation for Environmental Quality, Guangzhou, 511443, China
| | - Ziwei Mo
- Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 511443, China
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Joint Laboratory of Collaborative Innovation for Environmental Quality, Guangzhou, 511443, China
| | - Bin Yuan
- Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 511443, China
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Joint Laboratory of Collaborative Innovation for Environmental Quality, Guangzhou, 511443, China
| | - Shan Huang
- Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 511443, China
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Joint Laboratory of Collaborative Innovation for Environmental Quality, Guangzhou, 511443, China
| | - Yibo Huangfu
- Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 511443, China
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Joint Laboratory of Collaborative Innovation for Environmental Quality, Guangzhou, 511443, China
| | - Zelong Wang
- Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 511443, China
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Joint Laboratory of Collaborative Innovation for Environmental Quality, Guangzhou, 511443, China
| | - Xiaobing Li
- Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 511443, China
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Joint Laboratory of Collaborative Innovation for Environmental Quality, Guangzhou, 511443, China
| | - Suxia Yang
- Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 511443, China
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Joint Laboratory of Collaborative Innovation for Environmental Quality, Guangzhou, 511443, China
| | - Wenjie Wang
- Multiphase Chemistry Department, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, 55128, Germany
| | - Yiming Zhao
- Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 511443, China
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Joint Laboratory of Collaborative Innovation for Environmental Quality, Guangzhou, 511443, China
| | - Xuemei Wang
- Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 511443, China
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Joint Laboratory of Collaborative Innovation for Environmental Quality, Guangzhou, 511443, China
| | - Weiwen Wang
- Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 511443, China
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Joint Laboratory of Collaborative Innovation for Environmental Quality, Guangzhou, 511443, China
| | - Kexuan Liu
- Bureau of Ecology and Environment of Dongguan, Dongguan, 523099, China
| | - Min Shao
- Institute for Environmental and Climate Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 511443, China
- Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Joint Laboratory of Collaborative Innovation for Environmental Quality, Guangzhou, 511443, China
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191
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Spohn TK, Martin D, Geever M, O’Dowd C. Effect of COVID-19 lockdown on regional pollution in Ireland. AIR QUALITY, ATMOSPHERE, & HEALTH 2021; 15:221-234. [PMID: 34603555 PMCID: PMC8476717 DOI: 10.1007/s11869-021-01098-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2021] [Accepted: 09/13/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
This study examines the regional impact of the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions on pollution in Ireland by comparing the 2020 measurements of ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and particulate matter (PM) from monitoring stations around the country to the previous 3-year average. Results indicate that O3 was 5.6% lower and 13.7% higher than previous years during the lockdown at rural and suburban sites, respectively. NO2 decreased by 50.7% in urban areas, but increased slightly in agricultural regions, consistent with satellite observations. PM concentrations did not change significantly compared to previous years; however, a reduction in the signal variability in the smaller size particle measurements may be the result of different emission sources. The reduction in NO2 likely increased the ratio of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to NOx (nitrogen oxides), creating a NOx limited environment, which resulted in an initial increase in O3 in suburban areas, and the lower than usual levels observed at rural sites. Meteorology showed higher than average wind speeds prior to lockdown, which likely acted to disperse PM and NO2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Teresa K. Spohn
- Centre for Climate and Air Pollution Studies (C-CAPS), School of Physics, National University of Ireland Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland
| | - Damien Martin
- Centre for Climate and Air Pollution Studies (C-CAPS), School of Physics, National University of Ireland Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland
| | - Michael Geever
- Centre for Climate and Air Pollution Studies (C-CAPS), School of Physics, National University of Ireland Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland
| | - Colin O’Dowd
- Centre for Climate and Air Pollution Studies (C-CAPS), School of Physics, National University of Ireland Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland
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192
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Srivastava P, Dhyani S, Emmanuel MA, Khan AS. COVID-19 and environment: a poignant reminder of sustainability in the new normal. ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY (SINGAPORE) 2021; 4:649-670. [PMID: 38624923 PMCID: PMC8475439 DOI: 10.1007/s42398-021-00207-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2020] [Revised: 09/03/2021] [Accepted: 09/04/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
The nexus of COVID-19 and environment is conspicuously deep-rooted. The roles of environmental factors in the origin, transmission and spread of COVID-19 and the mutual impact of the pandemic on the global environment have been the two perspectives to view this nexus. The present paper attempts to systematically review the existing literature to understand and explore the linkages of COVID-19 with environment and proposes conceptual frameworks to underline this nexus. Our study indicates a critical role of meteorological factors, ambient air pollutants and wastewater in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2) transmission-spread dynamics. The study also focuses on the direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 on the regional and global environment. Most of the indirect environmental effects of COVID-19 were attributed to global human confinement that resulted from the implementation of the pandemic containment measures. This worldwide anthropogenic 'pause' sent ripples to all environmental compartments and presented a unique test bed to identify anthropogenic impacts on the earth's natural systems. The review further addresses emerging sustainability challenges in the new normal and their potential solutions. The situation warrants critical attention to the environment-COVID-19 nexus and innovative sustainable practices to address the ramifications of short- and long-term environmental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Graphical abstract
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Affiliation(s)
- Prateek Srivastava
- Department of Botany, C.M.P College, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh 211002 India
| | - Shalini Dhyani
- CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, 440020 Maharashtra India
| | | | - Ambrina Sardar Khan
- Amity Institute of Environmental Sciences, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201303 India
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193
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El-Sayed MMH, Elshorbany YF, Koehler K. On the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air quality in Florida. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2021; 285:117451. [PMID: 34082371 PMCID: PMC8802355 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2021.117451] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2021] [Revised: 05/14/2021] [Accepted: 05/21/2021] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
Since early 2020, the world has faced an unprecedented pandemic caused by the novel COVID-19 virus. In this study, we characterize the impact of the lockdown associated with the pandemic on air quality in six major cities across the state of Florida, namely: Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Gainesville, Orlando, Tampa, and Miami. Hourly measurements of PM2.5, ozone, NO2, SO2, and CO were provided by the US EPA at thirty sites operated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection during mid-February to mid-April from 2015 through 2020. To analyze the effect of the pandemic, atmospheric pollutant concentrations in 2020 were compared to historic data at these cities during the same period from 2015 to 2019. Reductions in NO2 and CO levels were observed across the state in most cities and were attributed to restrictions in mobility and the decrease in vehicle usage amid the lockdown. Likewise, decreases in O3 concentrations were observed and were related to the prevailing NOx-limited regime during this time period. Changes in concentrations of SO2 exhibited spatial variations, concentrations decreased in northern cities, however an increase was observed in central and southern cities, likely due to increased power generation at facilities primarily in the central and southern regions of the state. PM2.5 levels varied temporally during the study and were positively correlated with SO2 concentrations during the lockdown. In March, reductions in PM2.5 levels were observed, however elevations in PM2.5 concentrations in April were attributed to long-range transport of pollutants rather than local emissions. This study provides further insight into the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on anthropogenic sources from vehicular emissions and power generation in Florida. This work has implications for policies and regulations of vehicular emissions as well as consequences on the use of sustainable energy sources in the state.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marwa M H El-Sayed
- Department of Civil Engineering, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, 32114, USA.
| | - Yasin F Elshorbany
- College of Arts & Sciences, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL, 33701, USA
| | - Kirsten Koehler
- Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA
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194
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Huang XF, Cao LM, Tian XD, Zhu Q, Saikawa E, Lin LL, Cheng Y, He LY, Hu M, Zhang YH, Lu KD, Liu YH, Daellenbach K, Slowik JG, Tang Q, Zou QL, Sun X, Xu BY, Jiang L, Shen YM, Ng NL, Prévôt ASH. Critical Role of Simultaneous Reduction of Atmospheric Odd Oxygen for Winter Haze Mitigation. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 2021; 55:11557-11567. [PMID: 34431667 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c03421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The lockdown due to COVID-19 created a rare opportunity to examine the nonlinear responses of secondary aerosols, which are formed through atmospheric oxidation of gaseous precursors, to intensive precursor emission reductions. Based on unique observational data sets from six supersites in eastern China during 2019-2021, we found that the lockdown caused considerable decreases (32-61%) in different secondary aerosol components in the study region because of similar-degree precursor reductions. However, due to insufficient combustion-related volatile organic compound (VOC) reduction, odd oxygen (Ox = O3 + NO2) concentration, an indicator of the extent of photochemical processing, showed little change and did not promote more decreases in secondary aerosols. We also found that the Chinese provinces and international cities that experienced reduced Ox during the lockdown usually gained a greater simultaneous PM2.5 decrease than other provinces and cities with an increased Ox. Therefore, we argue that strict VOC control in winter, which has been largely ignored so far, is critical in future policies to mitigate winter haze more efficiently by reducing Ox simultaneously.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiao-Feng Huang
- Key Laboratory for Urban Habitat Environmental Science and Technology, School of Environment and Energy, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Li-Ming Cao
- Key Laboratory for Urban Habitat Environmental Science and Technology, School of Environment and Energy, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Xu-Dong Tian
- Key Laboratory of Ecological and Environmental Monitoring, Forewarning and Quality Control of Zhejiang, Zhejiang Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center, Hangzhou 310012, China
| | - Qiao Zhu
- Key Laboratory for Urban Habitat Environmental Science and Technology, School of Environment and Energy, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Eri Saikawa
- Department of Environmental Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, United States
| | - Li-Liang Lin
- Key Laboratory for Urban Habitat Environmental Science and Technology, School of Environment and Energy, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Yong Cheng
- Key Laboratory for Urban Habitat Environmental Science and Technology, School of Environment and Energy, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Ling-Yan He
- Key Laboratory for Urban Habitat Environmental Science and Technology, School of Environment and Energy, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Min Hu
- State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Yuan-Hang Zhang
- State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Ke-Ding Lu
- State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Yu-Han Liu
- State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Kaspar Daellenbach
- Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Villigen 5232, Switzerland
| | - Jay G Slowik
- Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Villigen 5232, Switzerland
| | - Qian Tang
- Key Laboratory of Ecological and Environmental Monitoring, Forewarning and Quality Control of Zhejiang, Zhejiang Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center, Hangzhou 310012, China
| | - Qiao-Li Zou
- Key Laboratory of Ecological and Environmental Monitoring, Forewarning and Quality Control of Zhejiang, Zhejiang Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center, Hangzhou 310012, China
| | - Xin Sun
- Key Laboratory of Ecological and Environmental Monitoring, Forewarning and Quality Control of Zhejiang, Zhejiang Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center, Hangzhou 310012, China
| | - Bing-Ye Xu
- Key Laboratory of Ecological and Environmental Monitoring, Forewarning and Quality Control of Zhejiang, Zhejiang Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center, Hangzhou 310012, China
| | - Lan Jiang
- Key Laboratory of Ecological and Environmental Monitoring, Forewarning and Quality Control of Zhejiang, Zhejiang Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center, Hangzhou 310012, China
| | - Ye-Min Shen
- Key Laboratory of Ecological and Environmental Monitoring, Forewarning and Quality Control of Zhejiang, Zhejiang Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center, Hangzhou 310012, China
| | - Nga Lee Ng
- School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
| | - André S H Prévôt
- Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Villigen 5232, Switzerland
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195
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Contrasting effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on urban birds' reproductive success in two cities. Sci Rep 2021; 11:17649. [PMID: 34480051 PMCID: PMC8417259 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-96858-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2021] [Accepted: 08/10/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
The ubiquitous activity of humans is a fundamental feature of urban environments affecting local wildlife in several ways. Testing the influence of human disturbance would ideally need experimental approach, however, in cities, this is challenging at relevant spatial and temporal scales. Thus, to better understand the ecological effects of human activity, we exploited the opportunity that the city-wide lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic provided during the spring of 2020. We assessed changes in reproductive success of great tits (Parus major) at two urban habitats affected strikingly differently by the ‘anthropause’, and at an unaffected forest site. Our results do not support that urban great tits benefited from reduced human mobility during the lockdown. First, at one of our urban sites, the strongly (− 44%) reduced human disturbance in 2020 (compared to a long-term reference period) did not increase birds’ reproductive output relative to the forest habitat where human disturbance was low in all years. Second, in the other urban habitat, recreational human activity considerably increased (+ 40%) during the lockdown and this was associated with strongly reduced nestling body size compared to the pre-COVID reference year. Analyses of other environmental factors (meteorological conditions, lockdown-induced changes in air pollution) suggest that these are not likely to explain our results. Our study supports that intensified human disturbance can have adverse fitness consequences in urban populations. It also highlights that a few months of ‘anthropause’ is not enough to counterweight the detrimental impacts of urbanization on local wildlife populations.
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196
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Polednik B. COVID-19 lockdown and particle exposure of road users. JOURNAL OF TRANSPORT & HEALTH 2021; 22:101233. [PMID: 34430204 PMCID: PMC8376651 DOI: 10.1016/j.jth.2021.101233] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2021] [Revised: 08/10/2021] [Accepted: 08/10/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION In 2020, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, there has been an unprecedented decrease in road traffic in almost all urbanized areas around the globe. This has undoubtedly affected the ambient air quality. METHODS In this study mobile and fixed-site measurements of aerosol particle concentrations in the ambient air in one of the busiest streets in Lublin, a mid-sized city in Central Europe (Poland) during the COVID-19 lockdown in the spring of 2020 were performed. Based on the measurements particle doses received by road users during different times of the day were assessed. The obtained results were compared with corresponding pre-COVID-19 measurements also performed in the spring which were available only from 2017. RESULTS During lockdown the mass concentration of traffic-related submicrometer PM1 particles and number concentration of ultrafine PN0.1 particles was significantly reduced. This resulted in a decrease of doses inhaled by road users as well as of particle doses deposited in their respiratory tracks. The greatest reductions of respectively over 2 times and over 5 times were observed during the day for total particles and traffic-related particles. Smaller reductions indicating the existence of relatively intensive non-traffic emissions were reported at night. CONCLUSIONS Substantial decrease in traffic intensity in the city caused by lockdown restrictions resulted in a significant reduction in the concentration of vehicle-generated particles in the ambient air. This in turn could have resulted in smaller doses inhaled by the inhabitants, specifically road users, which should have a positive impact on their health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bernard Polednik
- Faculty of Environmental Engineering, Lublin University of Technology, ul. Nadbystrzycka 40B, 20-618, Lublin, Poland
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197
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Brancher M. Increased ozone pollution alongside reduced nitrogen dioxide concentrations during Vienna's first COVID-19 lockdown: Significance for air quality management. ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION (BARKING, ESSEX : 1987) 2021; 284:117153. [PMID: 33940341 PMCID: PMC9757913 DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2021.117153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2021] [Revised: 03/19/2021] [Accepted: 04/13/2021] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Lockdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic have offered a real-world opportunity to better understand air quality responses to previously unseen anthropogenic emission reductions. METHODS AND MAIN OBJECTIVE This work examines the impact of Vienna's first lockdown on ground-level concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3) and total oxidant (Ox). The analysis runs over January to September 2020 and considers business as usual scenarios created with machine learning models to provide a baseline for robustly diagnosing lockdown-related air quality changes. Models were also developed to normalise the air pollutant time series, enabling facilitated intervention assessment. CORE FINDINGS NO2 concentrations were on average -20.1% [13.7-30.4%] lower during the lockdown. However, this benefit was offset by amplified O3 pollution of +8.5% [3.7-11.0%] in the same period. The consistency in the direction of change indicates that the NO2 reductions and O3 increases were ubiquitous over Vienna. Ox concentrations increased slightly by +4.3% [1.8-6.4%], suggesting that a significant part of the drops in NO2 was compensated by gains in O3. Accordingly, 82% of lockdown days with lowered NO2 were accompanied by 81% of days with amplified O3. The recovery shapes of the pollutant concentrations were depicted and discussed. The business as usual-related outcomes were broadly consistent with the patterns outlined by the normalised time series. These findings allowed to argue further that the detected changes in air quality were of anthropogenic and not of meteorological reason. Pollutant changes on the machine learning baseline revealed that the impact of the lockdown on urban air quality were lower than the raw measurements show. Besides, measured traffic drops in major Austrian roads were more significant for light-duty than for heavy-duty vehicles. It was also noted that the use of mobility reports based on cell phone movement as activity data can overestimate the reduction of emissions for the road transport sector, particularly for heavy-duty vehicles. As heavy-duty vehicles can make up a large fraction of the fleet emissions of nitrogen oxides, the change in the volume of these vehicles on the roads may be the main driver to explain the change in NO2 concentrations. INTERPRETATION AND IMPLICATIONS A probable future with emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) dropping slower than emissions of nitrogen oxides could risk worsened urban O3 pollution under a VOC-limited photochemical regime. More holistic policies will be needed to achieve improved air quality levels across different regions and criteria pollutants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marlon Brancher
- WG Environmental Health, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterinärplatz 1, A-1210, Vienna, Austria.
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198
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Naqvi HR, Mutreja G, Hashim M, Singh A, Nawazuzzoha M, Naqvi DF, Siddiqui MA, Shakeel A, Chaudhary AA, Naqvi AR. Global assessment of tropospheric and ground air pollutants and its correlation with COVID-19. ATMOSPHERIC POLLUTION RESEARCH 2021; 12:101172. [PMID: 34421319 PMCID: PMC8372483 DOI: 10.1016/j.apr.2021.101172] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2021] [Revised: 08/13/2021] [Accepted: 08/15/2021] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
The declaration of COVID-19 pandemic by the WHO initiated a series of lockdowns globally that varied in stringency and duration; however, the spatiotemporal effects of these lockdowns on air quality remain understudied. This study evaluates the global impact of lockdowns on air pollutants using tropospheric and ground-level indicators over a five-month period. Moreover, the relationship between air pollution and COVID-19 cases and mortalities was examined. Changes in the global tropospheric (NO2, aerosols, and O3) and ground-level (PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and O3) pollutants were observed, and the maximum air quality improvement was observed immediately after lockdown. Except for a few countries, a decline in air pollutants correlated with a reduction in Land Surface Temperature (LST). Notably, regions with higher tropospheric NO2 and aerosol concentrations were also COVID-19 hotspots. Our analysis showed moderate positive correlation for NO2 with COVID-19 cases (R2 = 0.33; r = 0.57, P = 0.006) and mortalities (R2 = 0.40; r = 0.63, P = 0.015), while O3 showed a weak-moderate positive correlation with COVID-19 cases (R2 = 0.22; r = 0.47, P = 0.003) and mortalities (R2 = 0.12; r = 0.35, P = 0.012). However, PM2.5, and PM10 showed no significant correlation with either COVID-19 cases or mortality. This study reveals that humans living under adverse air pollution conditions are at higher risk of COVID-19 infection and mortality.
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Affiliation(s)
- H R Naqvi
- Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
| | - G Mutreja
- Environmental Systems Research Institute, R & D Center, New Delhi, India
| | - M Hashim
- Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
| | - A Singh
- Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
| | - M Nawazuzzoha
- Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
| | - D F Naqvi
- ZiMetrics Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Pune, India
| | - M A Siddiqui
- Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
| | - A Shakeel
- Department of Geography, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
| | - A A Chaudhary
- Department of Biology, College of Science, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, 13317-7544, Saudi Arabia
| | - A R Naqvi
- Department of Periodontics, College of Dentistry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
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199
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Khaniabadi YO, Sicard P. A 10-year assessment of ambient fine particles and related health endpoints in a large Mediterranean city. CHEMOSPHERE 2021; 278:130502. [PMID: 34126698 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.130502] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2021] [Revised: 03/30/2021] [Accepted: 04/04/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Fine particles i.e., with an aerodynamic diameter lower than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) have potentially the most significant effects on human health compared to other air pollutants. The main objectives of this study were to i) investigate the temporal variations of ambient PM2.5 in Marseille (Southern France), where air pollution is again a major public health issue, and ii) estimate their short-term health effects and annual trend (Mann-Kendall test) over a 10-year period from 2010 to 2019. In Marseille, the main sources of PM2.5 could be related to road traffic, industrial complexes, and oil refineries surrounded the city. The number of premature deaths and hospital admissions attributable to ambient PM2.5 exposure for non-accidental causes, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases were estimated by using in-situ air quality data, city-specific relative risk values and baseline incidence. Despite significant reduction of PM2.5 (- 0.80 μg m-3 year-1), Marseille citizens were exposed to PM2.5 levels exceeding the World Health Organization (WHO) Air Quality Guideline for human health protection (10 μg m-3) during entire study period. Exposure to ambient PM2.5 substantially contributed to mortality and hospital admissions: 871 deaths for non-accidental causes, 515 deaths for cardiovascular diseases, 47 deaths for respiratory diseases, as well as 1034 hospital admissions for cardiovascular diseases and 834 for respiratory diseases were reported between 2010 and 2019. Compliance with WHO annual limit values can result in substantial socio-economic benefits by preventing premature deaths and hospital admissions. For instance, based on the value of a statistical life and average cost of a hospital admission, the associated benefit for healthcare would have been €131 million in 2019. Between 2010 and 2019, the number of PM2.5-related non-accidental deaths decreased by 1.15 per 105 inhabitants annually. Compared to 2010-2019, the restrictive measures associated to COVID-19 pandemic led to a reduction in PM2.5 of 11% in Marseille, with 2.6 PM2.5-related deaths averted in 2020.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yusef Omidi Khaniabadi
- Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Industrial Medial and Health, Petroleum Industry Health Organization (PIHO), Ahvaz, Iran
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200
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Du W, Wang J, Wang Z, Lei Y, Huang Y, Liu S, Wu C, Ge S, Chen Y, Bai K, Wang G. Influence of COVID-19 lockdown overlapping Chinese Spring Festival on household PM 2.5 in rural Chinese homes. CHEMOSPHERE 2021; 278:130406. [PMID: 33819885 PMCID: PMC8007388 DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.130406] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2021] [Revised: 03/20/2021] [Accepted: 03/23/2021] [Indexed: 05/22/2023]
Abstract
During the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many countries took strong lockdown policy to reduce disease spreading, resulting in mitigating the ambient air pollution due to less traffic and industrial emissions. However, limited studies focused on the household air pollution especially in rural area, the potential risk induced by indoor air pollution exposure was unknown during this period. This field study continuously measured real-time PM2.5 levels in kitchen, living room, and outdoor in the normal days (Period-1) and the days of COVID-19 lockdown overlapping the Chinese Spring Festival (Period-2) in rural homes in China. The average daily PM2.5 concentrations increased by 17.4 and 5.1 μg/m3 in kitchen and living room during Period-2, respectively, which may be due to more fuel consumption for cooking and heating caused by larger family sizes than those during the normal days. The ambient PM2.5 concentration in rural areas in Period-2 decreased by 6.7 μg/m3 compared to the Period-1, less than the drop in urban areas (26.8 μg/m3). An increase of mass fraction of very fine particles in ambient air was observed during lockdown overlapping annual festival days, which could be explained by the residential solid fuel burning. Due to higher indoor air pollution level and longer time spent in indoor environments, daily personal exposure to PM2.5 was 134 ± 40 μg/m3 in Period-2, which was significantly higher than that during in Period-1 (126 ± 27 μg/m3, p < 0.05). The increase of personal PM2.5 exposure during Period-2 could potentially have negative impact on human health, indicating further investigations should be performed to estimate the health impact of global COVID-19 lockdown on community, especially in rural homes using solid fuels as the routine fuels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei Du
- Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science of the Ministry of Education, School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, PR China
| | - Jinze Wang
- Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science of the Ministry of Education, School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, PR China
| | - Zhenglu Wang
- Department of Marine Biology, College of Oceanography, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, PR China
| | - Yali Lei
- Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science of the Ministry of Education, School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, PR China
| | - Ye Huang
- Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science of the Ministry of Education, School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, PR China
| | - Shijie Liu
- Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science of the Ministry of Education, School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, PR China
| | - Can Wu
- Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science of the Ministry of Education, School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, PR China
| | - Shuangshuang Ge
- Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science of the Ministry of Education, School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, PR China
| | - Yuanchen Chen
- College of Environment, Research Centre of Environmental Science, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310032, China
| | - Kaixu Bai
- Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science of the Ministry of Education, School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, PR China
| | - Gehui Wang
- Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science of the Ministry of Education, School of Geographic Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, PR China.
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