Dataset Information

COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan: Ambient air quality and the relationships between criteria air pollutants and meteorological variables before, during, and after lockdown.

ABSTRACT: As a result of the lockdown (LD) control measures enacted to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, almost all non-essential human activities were halted beginning on January 23, 2020 when the total lockdown was implemented. In this study, changes in the concentrations of the six criteria air pollutants (PM_2.5, PM₁₀, SO₂, NO₂, CO, and O₃) in Wuhan were investigated before (January 1 to 23, 2020), during (January 24 to April 5, 2020), and after the COVID-19 lockdown (April 6 to June 20, 2020) periods. Also, the relationships between the air pollutants and meteorological variables during the three periods were investigated. The results showed that there was significant improvement in air quality during the lockdown. Compared to the pre-lockdown period, the concentrations of NO₂, PM_2.5, PM₁₀, and CO decreased by 50.6, 41.2, 33.1, and 16.6%, respectively, while O₃ increased by 149% during the lockdown. After the lockdown, the concentrations of PM_2.5, CO and SO₂ declined by an additional 19.6, 15.6, and 2.1%, respectively. However, NO₂, O₃, and PM₁₀ increased by 55.5, 25.3, and 5.9%, respectively, compared to the lockdown period. Except for CO and SO₂, WS had negative correlations with the other pollutants during the three periods. RH was inversely related with all pollutants. Positive correlations were observed between temperature and the pollutants during the lockdown. Easterly winds were associated with peak PM_2.5 concentrations prior to the lockdown. The highest PM_2.5 concentrations were associated with southwesterly wind during the lockdown, and northwesterly winds coincided with the peak PM_2.5 concentrations after the lockdown. Although, COVID-19 pandemic had numerous negative effects on human health and the global economy, the reductions in air pollution and significant improvement in ambient air quality likely had substantial short-term health benefits. This study improves the understanding of the mechanisms that lead to air pollution under diverse meteorological conditions and suggest effective ways of reducing air pollution in Wuhan.

SUBMITTER: Sulaymon ID

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7657938 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan: Ambient air quality and the relationships between criteria air pollutants and meteorological variables before, during, and after lockdown.

Sulaymon Ishaq Dimeji ID Zhang Yuanxun Y Hopke Philip K PK Zhang Yang Y Hua Jinxi J Mei Xiaodong X

Atmospheric research 20201112

As a result of the lockdown (LD) control measures enacted to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, almost all non-essential human activities were halted beginning on January 23, 2020 when the total lockdown was implemented. In this study, changes in the concentrations of the six criteria air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, SO2, NO2, CO, and O3) in Wuhan were investigated before (January 1 to 23, 2020), during (January 24 to April 5, 2020), and af ...[more]

PMID: 33199931

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Project description:BackgroundTransmission intensity for mosquito-borne diseases are highly heterogenous and multi-factorial. Understanding risk factors associated to disease transmission allow the optimization of vector control. This study sets out to understand and compare the combined anthropogenic and environmental risk factors of four major mosquito-borne diseases, dengue, malaria, chikungunya and Japanese encephalitis in Thailand.MethodsAn integrated analysis of mosquito-borne diseases, meteorological and ambient air pollutants of 76 provinces of Thailand was conducted over 2003-2021. We explored the use of generalized linear models and generalized additive models to consider both linear and non-linear associations between meteorological factors, ambient air pollutants and mosquito-borne disease incidence. Different assumptions on spatio-temporal dependence and nonlinearity were considered through province-specific and panel models, as well as different spline functions. Disease-specific model evidence was assessed to select best-fit models for epidemiological inference downstream.ResultsAnalyses indicated several findings which can be generally applied to all diseases explored: (1) higher AH above mean values was positively associated with disease case counts (2) higher total precipitation above mean values was positively associated with disease case counts (3) extremely high temperatures were negatively associated with disease case counts (4) higher SO2 and PM2.5 surface concentrations were negatively associated with disease case counts. However, the relationships between disease and RH, non-extreme temperatures and CO surface concentration were more mixed, with directions of associations changing across the different diseases considered.ConclusionsThis study found protective and enhancing effects of meteorological and ambient air pollutant factors on mosquito-borne diseases burdens in Thailand. Further studies should employ these factors to understand and predict risk factors associated with mosquito-borne disease transmission.

Project description:The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has induced unprecedented improvements of air quality due to drastic shrinking of human activities during the pandemic lockdown in 2020. While declines of most air pollutants have been globally evidenced in most cities worldwide, there is few detailed spatial knowledge at local scale. Therefore, we present here a high resolution mapping of the 2018-2020 evolution of human activities and air pollutants in Wuhan. Human activities were assessed by nighttime light radiance. We measured the air quality index (AQI) as the maximum value among air quality sub-indices of SO2, NO2, CO, O3 and particulate matter. We also compared mean monthly pollutant concentration during January-April in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Mapping results show that variations of nighttime light radiance were heterogenous at local scale, showing both rises and declines in the same district. The radiance decreased in eight districts located mostly in the city center, as a result of lower human activity, but the radiance increased in the five surrounding districts, as a consequence of people staying at home. AQI was low during lockdown, averaging at 57, but showed strong daily variations with a slight pollution around February 5 with AQI rising to 126. During this pollution event, particulate matter, SO2, NO2 and CO levels were positively correlated, suggesting common sources, but were not correlated with ozone; and particulate matter, SO2, NO2 and CO decreased with relative humidity, suggesting removal by precipitation. Comparison of 2020 data with previous years shows that particulate matter and NO2 were highly reduced, CO was less reduced due to ongoing power industries, SO2 first declined then increased to exceed 2018-19 values due to coal combustion, and ozone levels was more abundant due both to less NOx pollution and the weekend effect.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10311-021-01222-x.

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Dataset Information

COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan: Ambient air quality and the relationships between criteria air pollutants and meteorological variables before, during, and after lockdown.

Publications

COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan: Ambient air quality and the relationships between criteria air pollutants and meteorological variables before, during, and after lockdown.

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