Assessment and valuation of health impacts of fine particulate matter during COVID-19 lockdown: a comprehensive study of tropical and sub tropical countries

Abstract

Graphical abstract A novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues to challenge the whole world. The disease has claimed many fatalities as it has transcended from one country to another since it was first discovered in China in late 2019. To prevent further morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19, most of the countries initiated a countrywide lockdown. While physical distancing and lockdowns helped in curbing the spread of this novel coronavirus, it led to massive economic losses for the nations. Positive impacts have been observed due to lockdown in terms of improved air quality of the nations. In the current research, ten tropical and subtropical countries have been analysed from multiple angles, including air pollution, assessment and valuation of health impacts and economic loss of countries during COVID-19 lockdown. Countries include Brazil, India, Iran, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Validated Simplified Aerosol Retrieval Algorithm (SARA) binning model is used on data collated from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) for particulate matters with a diameter of less than 2.5 μm (PM 2.5 ) for all the countries for the month of January to May 2019 and 2020. The concentration results of PM 2.5 show that air pollution has drastically reduced in 2020 post lockdown for all countries. The highest average concentration obtained by converting aerosol optical depth (AOD) for 2020 is observed for Thailand as 121.9 μg/m 3 and the lowest for Mexico as 36.27 μg/m 3 . As air pollution is found to decrease in the April and May months of 2020 for nearly all countries, they are compared with respective previous year values for the same duration to calculate the reduced health burden due to lockdown. The present study estimates that cumulative about 100.9 Billion US$ are saved due to reduced air pollution externalities, which are about 25% of the cumulative economic loss of 435.9 Billion US$. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-021-13813-w.

Valuing burden of premature mortality attributable to air pollution in major million-plus non-attainment cities of India

“…84 . Increased Urbanisation and industrialization activity together with unfavourable meteorological conditions 5 – 8 are the prime reasons for increased health burden due to air pollution. Background concentration of India has always remained on the higher side, making the conditions eccentric to achieve the WHO safety limits.…”

Is safe distance enough to prevent COVID-19? Dispersion and tracking of aerosols in various artificial ventilation conditions using OpenFOAM

“…Similarly, on the back wall, side walls and ventilation window, the particles are found in low numbers (about 2 to 9) with mask conditions in all the scenarios. From all the graphs, it is evident that without a masked person can spread many particles in the ventilated environment and can be more dangerous to health of others during the pandemic ( Bherwani et al, 2021d , Bherwani et al, 2021e , Kaur et al, 2021 ). Thus, it is indicated that mask conditions are much better and mask should be worn at all time while speaking or coughing.…”

COVID-19 and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Scenario analysis through fuzzy cognitive map modeling

“…Iran has been infected dramatically by the pandemic with 4,960,744 positive cases, 107,151 death records, and the rank of 9 among all countries in terms of cumulative total death per 100,000 populations by August 31, 2021 ( WHO, 2021 ). Total economic loss resulting from the pandemic restrictions in Iran is estimated to be 47.23 billion dollars ( Bherwani et al, 2021b ), which can affect the achievement of the UN’s SDGs in this country. In this regard, the main questions of the research are formulated as follows.…”