Air pollution reduction and mortality benefit during the COVID-19 outbreak in China.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Chen K
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7220178 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Chinese government implemented nationwide traffic restrictions and self-quarantine measures from January 23 to April 8 (in Wuhan), 2020. We estimated how these measures impacted ambient air pollution and the subsequent consequences on health and the health-related economy in 367 Chinese cities. A random forests modeling was used to predict the business-as-usual air pollution concentrations in 2020, after adjusting for the impact of long-term trend and weather conditions. We calculated changes in mortality attributable to reductions in air pollution in early 2020 and health-related economic benefits based on the value of statistical life (VSL). Compared with the business-as-usual scenario, we estimated 1239 (95% CI: 844-1578) PM2.5-related deaths were avoided, as were 2777 (95% CI: 1565-3995) PM10-related deaths, 1587 (95% CI: 98-3104) CO-related deaths, 4711 (95% CI: 3649-5781) NO2-related deaths, 215 (95% CI: 116-314) O3-related deaths, and 1088 (95% CI: 774-1421) SO2-related deaths. Based on the reduction in deaths, economic benefits for in PM2.5, PM10, CO, NO2, O3, and SO2 were 1.22, 2.60, 1.36, 4.05, 0.20, and 0.95 billion USD, respectively. Our findings demonstrate the substantial benefits in human health and health-related costs due to improved urban air quality during the COVID lockdown period in China in early 2020.
| S-EPMC8241793 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Chinese government implemented nationwide traffic restrictions and self-quarantine measures from January 23 to April 8 (in Wuhan), 2020. We estimated how these measures impacted ambient air pollution and the subsequent consequences on health and the health-related economy in 367 Chinese cities. A random forests modeling was used to predict the business-as-usual air pollution concentrations in 2020, after adjusting for the impact of long-term trend and weather conditions. We calculated changes in mortality attributable to reductions in air pollution in early 2020 and health-related economic benefits based on the value of statistical life (VSL). Compared with the business-as-usual scenario, we estimated 1239 (95% CI: 844-1578) PM2.5-related deaths were avoided, as were 2777 (95% CI: 1565-3995) PM10-related deaths, 1587 (95% CI: 98-3104) CO-related deaths, 4711 (95% CI: 3649-5781) NO2-related deaths, 215 (95% CI: 116-314) O3-related deaths, and 1088 (95% CI: 774-1421) SO2-related deaths. Based on the reduction in deaths, economic benefits for in PM2.5, PM10, CO, NO2, O3, and SO2 were 1.22, 2.60, 1.36, 4.05, 0.20, and 0.95 billion USD, respectively. Our findings demonstrate the substantial benefits in human health and health-related costs due to improved urban air quality during the COVID lockdown period in China in early 2020.
| S-EPMC8241793 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Chinese government implemented nationwide traffic restrictions and self-quarantine measures from January 23 to April 8 (in Wuhan), 2020. We estimated how these measures impacted ambient air pollution and the subsequent consequences on health and the health-related economy in 367 Chinese cities. A random forests modeling was used to predict the business-as-usual air pollution concentrations in 2020, after adjusting for the impact of long-term trend and weather conditions. We calculated changes in mortality attributable to reductions in air pollution in early 2020 and health-related economic benefits based on the value of statistical life (VSL). Compared with the business-as-usual scenario, we estimated 1239 (95% CI: 844-1578) PM2.5-related deaths were avoided, as were 2777 (95% CI: 1565-3995) PM10-related deaths, 1587 (95% CI: 98-3104) CO-related deaths, 4711 (95% CI: 3649-5781) NO2-related deaths, 215 (95% CI: 116-314) O3-related deaths, and 1088 (95% CI: 774-1421) SO2-related deaths. Based on the reduction in deaths, economic benefits for in PM2.5, PM10, CO, NO2, O3, and SO2 were 1.22, 2.60, 1.36, 4.05, 0.20, and 0.95 billion USD, respectively. Our findings demonstrate the substantial benefits in human health and health-related costs due to improved urban air quality during the COVID lockdown period in China in early 2020.
| S-EPMC8241793 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Over the past decades, urbanization and industrialization have led to a change in air quality, bringing researchers to a full realization of the damaging effects of human activities on the environment. This study focused on describing air quality during the initial phase of the Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic (since there were fewer anthropogenic activities) in 10 Chinese mega-cities. Using the independent t-test, the means of air quality index (AQI) scores and individual air pollutants concentration during the outbreak were compared with the means before the outbreak. Cohen's d was estimated to quantify how much difference was observed. Based on the AQI score, the air quality in these 10 cities ranged from excellent (Shenzhen) to light pollution (Xi'an) with 44.8 μg m-3 and 119.7 μg m-3, respectively. In comparison to the 2019 air quality, Guangzhou and Wuhan noted major differences in air quality during the outbreak. Indicators of traffic pollution, particularly NO2, were significantly lower during the outbreak in all cities. Particulate matter pollution varied, with some cities observing lower concentrations and other higher concentrations during the outbreak. There was a significant decrease in air pollution levels during the outbreak. More researchers should observe changes in air quality during peculiar or major events. Implementation of stringent regulation on vehicle use should be considered in mega-cities. Relevant findings should be employed in emphasizing the detrimental effects of anthropogenic activities and support the need for stringent emission control regulations.
| S-EPMC8003380 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Due to the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 in China, almost all avoidable activities in China are prohibited since Wuhan announced lockdown on January 23, 2020. With reduced activities, severe air pollution events still occurred in the North China Plain, causing discussions regarding why severe air pollution was not avoided. The Community Multi-scale Air Quality model was applied during January 01 to February 12, 2020 to study PM2.5 changes under emission reduction scenarios. The estimated emission reduction case (Case 3) better reproduced PM2.5. Compared with the case without emission change (Case 1), Case 3 predicted that PM2.5 concentrations decreased by up to 20% with absolute decreases of 5.35, 6.37, 9.23, 10.25, 10.30, 12.14, 12.75, 14.41, 18.00 and 30.79 μg/m3 in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Tianjin, Jinan, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, respectively. In high-pollution days with PM2.5 greater than 75 μg/m3, the reductions of PM2.5 in Case 3 were 7.78, 9.51, 11.38, 13.42, 13.64, 14.15, 14.42, 16.95 and 22.08 μg/m3 in Shanghai, Jinan, Shijiazhuang, Beijing, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Tianjin, Zhengzhou and Wuhan, respectively. The reductions in emissions of PM2.5 precursors were ~2 times of that in concentrations, indicating that meteorology was unfavorable during simulation episode. A further analysis shows that benefits of emission reductions were overwhelmed by adverse meteorology and severe air pollution events were not avoided. This study highlights that large emissions reduction in transportation and slight reduction in industrial would not help avoid severe air pollution in China, especially when meteorology is unfavorable. More efforts should be made to completely avoid severe air pollution.
| S-EPMC7151380 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a global public health threaten. A series of strict prevention and control measures were implemented in China, contributing to the improvement of air quality. In this study, we described the trend of air pollutant concentrations and the incidence of COVID-19 during the epidemic and applied generalized additive models (GAMs) to assess the association between short-term exposure to air pollution and daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 in 235 Chinese cities. Disease progression based on both onset and report dates as well as control measures as potential confounding were considered in the analyses. We found that stringent prevention and control measures intending to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, contributed to a significant decline in the concentrations of air pollutants except ozone (O3). Significant positive associations of short-term exposure to air pollutants, including particulate matter with diameters ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5), particulate matter with diameters ≤10 μm (PM10), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) with daily new confirmed cases were observed during the epidemic. Per interquartile range (IQR) increase in PM2.5 (lag0-15), PM10 (lag0-15), and NO2 (lag0-20) were associated with a 7% [95% confidence interval (CI): (4-9)], 6% [95% CI: (3-8)], and 19% [95% CI: (13-24)] increase in the counts of daily onset cases, respectively. Our results suggest that there is a statistically significant association between ambient air pollution and the spread of COVID-19. Thus, the quarantine measures can not only cut off the transmission of virus, but also retard the spread by improving ambient air quality, which might provide implications for the prevention and control of COVID-19.
| S-EPMC7573694 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In order to control the spread of COVID-19, social distancing measures were implemented in many countries. This study investigated changes in air pollution during the social distancing after the COVID-19 outbreak in Korea. Ambient PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and CO that are particularly related to industrial activities and traffic were reduced during the social distancing in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. In March 2020, immediately after social distancing, mean levels of PM2.5, PM10, NO2, and CO decreased nationwide from last year's mean levels by 16.98 μg/m3, 21.61 μg/m3, 4.16 ppb, and 0.09 ppm, respectively (p-value for the year-to-year difference <0.001, =0.001, =0.008, <0.001), a decrease by 45.45%, 35.56%, 20.41%, and 17.33%, respectively. Changes in ambient O3 or SO2 were not observed to be attributable to social distancing. Our findings, that such effort for a short period of time resulted in a significant reduction in air pollution, may point toward reducing air pollution as a public health problem in a more sustainable post-COVID-19 world.
| S-EPMC7402377 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Although strict lockdown measurements implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic have dramatically reduced the anthropogenic-based emissions, changes in air quality and its health impacts remain unclear in China. We comprehensively described air pollution during and after the lockdown periods in 2020 compared with 2018-2019, and estimated the mortality burden indicated by the number of deaths and years of life lost (YLL) related to the air pollution changes. The mean air quality index (AQI), PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2 and CO concentrations during the lockdown across China declined by 18.2 (21.2%), 27.0 μg/m3 (28.9%), 10.5 μg/m3 (18.3%), 8.4 μg/m3 (44.2%), 13.1 μg/m3 (38.8%), and 0.3 mg/m3 (27.3%) respectively, when compared to the same periods during 2018-2019. We observed an increase in O3 concentration during the lockdown by 5.5 μg/m3 (10.4%), and a slight decrease after the lockdown by 3.4 μg/m3 (4.4%). As a result, there were 51.3 (95%CI: 32.2, 70.1) thousand fewer premature deaths (16.2 thousand during and 35.1 thousand after the lockdown), and 1066.8 (95%CI: 668.7, 1456.8) thousand fewer YLLs (343.3 thousand during and 723.5 thousand after the lockdown) than these in 2018-2019. Our findings suggest that the COVID-19 lockdown has caused substantial decreases in air pollutants except for O3, and that substantial human health benefits can be achieved when strict control measures for air pollution are taken to reduce emissions from vehicles and industries. Stricter tailored policy solutions of air pollution are urgently needed in China and other countries, especially in well-developed industrial regions, such as upgrading industry structure and promoting green transportation.
| S-EPMC8170876 | biostudies-literature
Project description:To control the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19), China imposed nationwide restrictions on the movement of its population (lockdown) after the Chinese New Year of 2020, leading to large reductions in economic activities and associated emissions. Despite such large decreases in primary pollution, there were nonetheless several periods of heavy haze pollution in eastern China, raising questions about the well-established relationship between human activities and air quality. Here, using comprehensive measurements and modeling, we show that the haze during the COVID lockdown was driven by enhancements of secondary pollution. In particular, large decreases in NOx emissions from transportation increased ozone and nighttime NO3 radical formation, and these increases in atmospheric oxidizing capacity in turn facilitated the formation of secondary particulate matter. Our results, afforded by the tragic natural experiment of the COVID-19 pandemic, indicate that haze mitigation depends upon a coordinated and balanced strategy for controlling multiple pollutants.
| S-EPMC7337733 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rapidly spread worldwide in the first quarter of 2020 and resulted in a global crisis. Investigation of the potential association of the spread of the COVID-19 infection with climate or ambient air pollution could lead to the development of preventive strategies for disease control. To examine this association, we conducted a longitudinal cohort study of 28 geographical areas of Japan with documented outbreaks of COVID-19. We analyzed data obtained from March 13 to April 6, 2020, before the Japanese government declared a state of emergency. The results revealed that the epidemic growth of COVID-19 was significantly associated with increase in daily temperature or sunshine hours. This suggests that an increase in person-to-person contact due to increased outing activities on a warm and/or sunny day might promote the transmission of COVID-19. Our results also suggested that short-term exposure to suspended particles might influence respiratory infections caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Further research by well-designed or well-controlled study models is required to ascertain this effect. Our findings suggest that weather has an indirect role in the transmission of COVID-19 and that daily adequate preventive behavior decreases the transmission.
| S-EPMC7420955 | biostudies-literature