Air quality change during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown over the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, France

Sbai, Salah Eddine; Mejjad, Nezha; Abderrahim, Norelyaqine; Bentayeb, Farida

doi:10.1007/s11869-020-00965-w

Cited by 35 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Generally, most COVID-19 studies have focused on its causes, origin, and its potential impact on water and air quality [18][19][20][21][22], while few of them have documented the possible personal protective equipment waste impact on the environment and the management strategy and approaches to address facemask waste disposal [23,24]. In this sense, recent studies have highlighted the urgent need for developing new management approaches to this kind of waste to avoid the environmental harm and health risks that could be caused by the disposal of facemasks and other PPE items [25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disposal Behavior of Used Masks during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Moroccan Community: Potential Environmental Impact

Mejjad

Cherif

Rodero

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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The spread of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) levied on the Moroccan authorities to increase their mask production capacity, which reached up to 12 million facemask units produced per day. This increase in personal protective equipment (PPE) production and consumption is an efficient tool to address the spread of COVID-19. However, this results in more plastic and microplastic debris being added into the land and marine environments, which will harm the ecosystem, wildlife, and public health. Such a situation needs deep individual behavior observation and tracking, as well as an assessment of the potential environmental impact of this new type of waste. For this reason, we assessed the Moroccan population’s behavior regarding the use and disposal of facemasks and gloves. An exploratory survey was prepared and shared via social media and email with the population of Rabat-Salé-Kénitra and Casablanca-Settat regions. Additionally, we calculated the estimated number and weight of daily and weekly PPE used and generated by the studied regions. The survey showed that 70% of the respondents threw their discarded masks and gloves in house trash or trash bins after their first use, whereas nearly 30% of respondents admitted that they did not wear masks because they did not leave their homes during the lockdown, while from the 70% of facemask users, more than five million (equivalent to 40,000 kg) of facemasks would be generated and disposed of daily by the community of these regions, which presents 35% of the total engendered facemask waste in Morocco. Accordingly, the environment impact of facemasks showed that the greenhouse gas footprint is about 640 kT CO2 eq./year for the whole of Morocco, while the energy footprint is around 60,000 GWh/year. Furthermore, an urgent multidisciplinary environmental assessment of the potential impact of PPE must be conducted among the 12 Moroccan regions. This study demonstrated the real impact of the COVID-19 PPE on human behavior and the environment and suggests a need for providing new didactic management of facemasks and gloves.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disposal Behavior of Used Masks during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Moroccan Community: Potential Environmental Impact

Mejjad

Cherif

Rodero

et al. 2021

IJERPH

Self Cite

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“…For the main chemical species of PM 2.5 , Zhang et al( Zheng et al, 2020 ) reported that the main components of PM 2.5 decreased in Wuhan, especially trace elements (0.65 %) and elemental carbon (0.67 %), indicating that primary emissions were reduced due to the lockdown. However, the photochemical reactions involving O 3 and OH radicals contribute significantly to PM 2.5 formation during the lockdown period due to the increase in ozone and this may explain the slight decrease in PM 2.5 during confinement in comparison with other pollutants like NO x and SO 2 ( Sbai et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…7 (e)). Under atmospheric conditions the depletion of ozone by NO x is more important than its production ( Sbai et al, 2021 ). The titration effect mainly affects the daily depletion of ozone ( Anshika et al, 2021 ; Feng et al, 2019 ; Kumar et al, 2010 ; Reddy et al, 2010 ; Wang et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opposite impact of emission reduction during the COVID-19 lockdown period on the surface concentrations of PM2.5 and O3 in Wuhan, China

Yin

Liu

et al. 2021

Environmental Pollution

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To prevent the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Chinese megacity Wuhan has taken emergent lockdown measures starting on January 23, 2020. This provided a natural experiment to investigate the response of air quality to such emission reductions. Here, we decoupled the influence of meteorological and non-meteorological factors on main air pollutants using generalized additive models (GAMs), driven by data from the China National Environmental Monitoring Center (CNEMC) network. During the lockdown period (Jan. 23 – Apr. 8, 2020), PM 2.5 , PM 10 , NO 2 , SO 2 , and CO concentrations decreased significantly by 45 %, 49 %, 56 %, 39 %, and 18 % compared with the corresponding period in 2015–2019, with contributions by S(meteos) of 15 %, 17 %, 13 %, 10 %, and 6 %. This indicates an emission reduction of NO x at least 43 %. However, O 3 increased by 43 % with a contribution by S(meteos) of 6 %. In spite of the reduced volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions by 30 % during the strict lockdown period (Jan. 23 – Feb. 14, 2020), which likely reduced the production of O 3 , O 3 concentrations increased due to a weakening of the titration effect of NO. Our results suggest that conventional emission reduction (NO x reduction only) measures may not be sufficient to reduce (or even lead to an increase of) surface O 3 concentrations, even if reaching the limit, and VOC-specific measures should also be taken.

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“…The wind is a fundamental element for the dispersion, dilution, and orientation of pollutant plumes. Under high wind speed, the dispersion of the pollutant is greater, while in the lower wind speed is likely for air pollution accumulation (Sbai et al 2021). High temperatures can function as catalysts for chemical processes of air pollutants (Wang et al 2020).…”

Section: Analysis Of Mass Concentration Changes Of No 2 and So 2 In Different Phasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal variation characteristics of atmospheric NO2 and SO2 in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region before and after the COVID-19 outbreak

Shen

Zhao

Zhou

et al. 2021

Air Qual Atmos Health

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Emergency response mechanisms were activated throughout China during the COVID-19 outbreak. It is different from the temporary, partial, and limited pollution control measures taken to ensure the regional environmental quality during several important events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). During the COVID-19 epidemic period, extensive movement of people and almost all unnecessary industrial production (necessary industrial production refers to the production of food, epidemic prevention materials, etc.) have been severely restricted, so transportation and industrial production have been greatly reduced. This is a rare extreme emission reduction scenario that presents a unique opportunity for atmospheric research. In this study, based on hourly mass concentration data of NO 2 and SO 2 from atmospheric monitoring sites in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region during the COVID-19 epidemic period, the changes in transportation and industrial production in the region, data statistics, and spatial analysis were used to analyze the pollution changes and their causes. The results indicate that the NO 2 and SO 2 concentrations in the BTH region decreased significantly during the epidemic period. The spatial distribution pattern of NO 2 pollution in the BTH region was "high in the southeast and low in the northwest," and SO 2 pollution in the BTH region was high in the southern and eastern parts of Hebei. The initiation of emergency response level 1 had an obvious effect on reducing NO 2 and SO 2 pollution in the region, while the impact of emergency response level 2 and below was limited. Compared with the single traffic control, the comprehensive control, similar to the emergency response, had a better effect on reducing NO 2 pollution in the region. The control of major large cities in the region also had a certain effect on alleviating NO 2 and SO 2 pollution in the entire region. Moreover, for activities under short-term control, it is particularly important to guard against the "retaliatory growth" after the control is lifted. By reducing and controlling some polluting industries in industrial production, the degree of NO 2 and SO 2 pollution in the region can be effectively reduced. The manufacturing industry of chemical raw materials and the chemical products and non-metallic mineral products industry made a great contribution to the change in industrial source pollution emissions in the BTH region during the COVID-19 epidemic. Road traffic emissions remained an important source of NO 2 emissions in the BTH region during this period. NO 2 emission reduction can be effectively achieved by controlling road traffic and transportation.

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Air quality change during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown over the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, France

Cited by 35 publications

References 43 publications

Disposal Behavior of Used Masks during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Moroccan Community: Potential Environmental Impact

Disposal Behavior of Used Masks during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Moroccan Community: Potential Environmental Impact

Opposite impact of emission reduction during the COVID-19 lockdown period on the surface concentrations of PM2.5 and O3 in Wuhan, China

Spatial and temporal variation characteristics of atmospheric NO2 and SO2 in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region before and after the COVID-19 outbreak

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