Big Data Analysis for Effects of the COVID-19 Outbreak on Ambient PM2.5 in Areas that Were Not Locked Down

Abstract

At the end of 2019, the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak was first observed. Also known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SAS-cov-2), it rapidly spread globally in the first half of 2020. COVID-19 disease was well-controlled in Taiwan without a nation-wide lockdown. Our study aimed to investigate PM2.5 levels and patterns from PM2.5 sensors during the COVID-19 situation in 2020 compared with those in the corresponding periods in 2019. Our sampling areas were located at industrial areas in the north and south Taiwan and were used to gather PM2.5 data from approximately 1,500 PM2.5 sensors every 1 or 3 minutes between January and March of 2019 and 2020. Compared with the corresponding period of 2019 (16.3 and 32.4 μg m -3 in north and south Taiwan, respectively), PM2.5 was significantly reduced by 3.70% and 10.6% in north and south Taiwan, respectively, during the COVID-19 situation from January to March in 2020 based on a big data analysis. Similar PM2.5 patterns were observed in the industrial areas in north and south Taiwan in 2019 and 2020. Based on our results, the decline in PM2.5 during the COVID-19 outbreak has mainly been due to decreased domestic emissions of PM2.5 precursors (i.e., nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide) and to a lesser degree is due to reductions in transboundary transportation of PM2.5, such as long-range PM2.5 transport from China. PM2.5 may be temporarily decreased during the COVID-19 outbreak, but the patterns remained similar to those in the past.Considering restrictions related to the rapid spread of the SAS-cov-2 virus during the COVID-19

Rapid Control of a SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.2 (Delta) Variant COVID-19 Community Outbreak: The Successful Experience in Pingtung County of Taiwan

“…The positive association of the air pollutants with SARS-CoV-2 infection mortality were mainly due to combinations of COVID-19 and air pollution related comorbidities in several reports [25,[29][30][31]. The implementation of lockdown or restriction was demonstrated to improve the air quality in the regions during the duration of COVID-19 [25,[32][33][34]. In the present study (Figure 3 and Tables S1-S3), compared with the corresponding periods in 2019 and 2020, the decline of PM 2.5 , PM 10 , and NO 2 in 2021 were probably associated with restricted activities in the domestic areas and lockdown implementation after the Pingtung outbreak.…”

Research Priorities of Applying Low-Cost PM2.5 Sensors in Southeast Asian Countries

“…Although the accuracy and precision of LCPMS might not reach the level of those research-grade instruments, the LCPMS network with the aforementioned correction has made a great contribution, showing the fine temporospatial variations of PM 2.5 as never before. For instance, this LCPMS network has shown that PM 2.5 levels decreased by 3.7% and 10.6%, respectively, covering most areas in northern and southern Taiwan during 2020 pandemic periods even without lockdown measures in Taiwan [91].…”

“…Most of them used different data techniques trying to adjust the data of sensors in the national sensor network (e.g., [89]); these sensors were not calibrated by the manufacturers. Some papers did not mention the necessary calibration for sensors (e.g., [90]), and some mentioned calibration without specifying the calibration methods (e.g., [91]). The application of the sensor network is reviewed in Section 3.2.…”

Associations between Children's Exposure to PM2.5 and their Serum Inflammatory Responses in Taiwan

“…The global concern towards PM2.5 pollution due to the increase in adverse health effects including heart attack, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetes mellitus (DM), and neurological disorders is increasing (Shah et al, 2013;Wang et al, 2015;Feng et al, 2016;Kao et al, 2019;Shou et al, 2019;Grande et al, 2021). PM2.5 is emitted from vehicular engines, industrial processing, open biomass burning, chemical industries, cooking fume, resuspended road dust, incomplete combustion from fossil fuels, and agricultural and construction processing (Fann et al, 2012;Aunan and Wang, 2014;Loftus et al, 2015;Chao et al, 2018;Mukherjee and Agrawal, 2018;Chen et al, 2019;Yu et al, 2021). PM2.5 from the long-range atmospheric transport (LRAT) or transboundary transportation through Asian dust storms or monsoon mainly contributed to PM2.5 pollution in the winter and spring seasons of Taiwan (Liu et al, 2017;Yu et al, 2021).…”

“…PM2.5 is emitted from vehicular engines, industrial processing, open biomass burning, chemical industries, cooking fume, resuspended road dust, incomplete combustion from fossil fuels, and agricultural and construction processing (Fann et al, 2012;Aunan and Wang, 2014;Loftus et al, 2015;Chao et al, 2018;Mukherjee and Agrawal, 2018;Chen et al, 2019;Yu et al, 2021). PM2.5 from the long-range atmospheric transport (LRAT) or transboundary transportation through Asian dust storms or monsoon mainly contributed to PM2.5 pollution in the winter and spring seasons of Taiwan (Liu et al, 2017;Yu et al, 2021). According to the report "Particulate Matters (PM2.5) Precursor Demonstration Guidance" by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) (Mathias and Wayland, 2019), nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, aldehydes or ketones, and ammonia, which are the precursors of PM2.5 associated with the traffic-related air pollutants (TRAPs), which was easily developed or converted into PM2.5.…”