Changes in U.S. air pollution during the COVID-19 pandemic

Berman, Jeffrey W.; Ebisu, Keita

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139864

Cited by 554 publications

(456 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(9 reference statements)

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“…Consequently, the economy of countries that depend on their exports has been severely affected ( ECLAC, 2020 ). Furthermore, the reduction in transport has caused decreases of 17% in the global CO 2 emissions ( Le Quéré et al, 2020 ), 30% in NO 2 emissions in COVID-19 epicentres such as Wuhan, Italy, and USA ( Muhammad et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020 ; Gautam, 2020a ), as well as 62% in Spanish cities ( Baldasano, 2020 ), 25.5% in PM 2.5 particles in USA ( Berman and Ebisu, 2020 ), and a 20 years low in the concentration of aerosol particles in India ( Gautam, 2020b ) compared to pre-pandemic levels. Also, there has been an increase of 24% ozone in southern European cities ( Sicard et al, 2020 ) and 17% in India ( Sharma et al, 2020 ), Hence, keeping track of these and other changes in our environment during the COVID-19 pandemic is a useful practice to obtain feedback of the event itself and the measures applied in order to plan future strategies, especially since there are recent reports that show evidence of the virus RNA in wastewater, ( Ahmed et al, 2020 ) as well as a correlation between the number of COVID-19 deaths to the diurnal temperature range ( Ma et al, 2020 ) and other climate conditions ( Coccia, 2020 ; Chen et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decrease of mobility, electricity demand, and NO2 emissions on COVID-19 times and their feedback on prevention measures

Corpus-Mendoza

Ruiz-Segoviano

Rodriguez-Contreras

et al. 2021

Science of The Total Environment

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The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on 2020 has affected human activities in a way never documented in modern history. As a consequence of the prevention measures implemented to contain the virus, cities around the world are experiencing a decrease in urban mobility and electricity demand that have positively affected the air quality. The most extreme cases for cities around the world show a decrease of 90, 40, and 70% in mobility, electricity demand, and NO 2 emissions respectively. At the same time, the inspection of these changes along the evaluation of COVID-19 incidence curves allow to obtain feedback about the timely execution of prevention measures for this and future global events. In this case, we identify and discuss the early effort of Latin-American countries to successfully delay the spread of the virus by implementing prevention measures before the fast growth of COVID-19 cases in comparison to European countries.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decrease of mobility, electricity demand, and NO2 emissions on COVID-19 times and their feedback on prevention measures

Corpus-Mendoza

Ruiz-Segoviano

Rodriguez-Contreras

et al. 2021

Science of The Total Environment

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“…Lockdown of the production sectors, restriction on human mobility, and controlled public transportation system have resulted in the lowering of emission of pollutants. Studies by various scholars have shown how the lockdown has improved the ambient air quality, like in India (Gautam 2020 ; Mahato et al 2020 ; Sikarwar and Rani 2020 ; Srivastava et al 2020 ), the USA (Berman and Ebisu 2020 ), Mexico (Méndez-Arriaga 2020 ), Kazakhstan (Kerimray et al 2020 ), Iran (Abdul Halim et al 2018 ), China (Fan et al 2020 ; Zambrano-monserrate et al 2020 ) especially in Wuhan (Cole et al 2020 ; Lu et al 2020 ; Sicard et al 2020 ; Song et al 2016 ; Wang and Su 2020 ), Barcelona in Spain (Tobías et al 2020 ), Sao-Paulo in Brazil (Nakada and Urban 2020 ), Milan in Italy (Collivignarelli et al 2020 ), and Salé City in Morocco (Otmani et al 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the immediate impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the air quality of Kolkata and Howrah, West Bengal, India

Sarkar

Das²,

Mukhopadhyay

2020

Environ Dev Sustain

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The worldwide spread of COVID-19 caused a nationwide lockdown in India from 24 March 2020 and was further extended up to 3 May 2020 to break off the transmission of novel Coronavirus. The study is designed to assess the changes in air quality from the pre-lockdown period to the during lockdown period in Kolkata and Howrah municipal corporation, West Bengal, India. GIS-based techniques include the spatial and temporal distribution of pollutants using interpolation method, and on the other hand, statistical methods like analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to determine the mean differences two phases and correlation matrix helps to understand the changing association of the pollutants in pre- and during lockdown phases. Significant correlations have been found among the pollutants, ANOVA (Two-Way) has shown the significant mean difference of NAQI between the two phases, F (1,611) = 465.723, p < 0.0001; pairwise comparison for Ballygunge has shown the highest mean difference 108.194 at p < 0.0001 significant level between lockdown and pre-lockdown phase. Significant positive correlation has been found between PM 2.5 , PM 10 (0.99*); PM 2.5, NO 2 (0.81*); PM 10 , NO 2 (0.81*); CO, NO 2 (0.77*) and some negative correlations have also been found between O 3 , NO (− 0.15); O 3 and NH 3 (− 0.36) in the pre-lockdown phase. The reduction amount of mean concentration from the pre-lockdown phase to during lockdown of the main pollutants like PM 2.5 , PM 10 and NO 2 are ~ 58.71%, ~ 57.92% and ~ 55.23%. Near Rabindra Bharati University constant emission of PM 2.5 , 10 and NO 2 have been recorded due to the nearby Cossipore thermal power station.

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“…By mid-June 2020, the pandemic encompassed more than 8 million infected people and nearly 450,000 deaths around the world. This pandemic has greatly affected human society, including health care, social relationships, and the structure of the economy as well as politics (Berman and Ebisu 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on criteria air pollutants in the city of Daegu, the epicenter of South Korea’s outbreak

Vuong

Thang

Park

et al. 2020

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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The outbreak of COVID-19 in Daegu, South Korea, early in 2020 has led this metropolitan city to become one of the major hotspots in the world. This study investigates the association of meteorology and the new daily COVID-19 confirmed cases and the effects of the city lockdown on the variation in criteria air pollutants (CAPs) in Daegu. Ambient temperature and relative humidity were negatively correlated to the new daily cases and played an important role in the spread of COVID-19. Wind speed could enhance the virus transmission through the inhalation of aerosols and/or droplets and contact with fomites. The lockdown has directly decreased the concentrations of CAPs. In particular, reductions of 3.75% (PM 10 ), 30.9% (PM 2.5 ), 36.7% (NO 2 ), 43.7% (CO), and 21.3% (SO 2 ) between the period before and during the outbreak were observed over the entire city. An increase in O 3 (71.1%) was affected by natural processes and photochemical formation other than the lockdown effects. The three central districts were the areas most affected by the virus and showed the highest reductions in CAPs (except for O 3 ) during the outbreak. Apart from the influence of the lockdown, the decreasing trend in CAPs may be a result of the actions taken by the government to mitigate air pollutants nationwide since 2019. The results of this study can be useful for government and medical organizations to understand the behavior of the virus in the atmosphere. Further studies are necessary to explore the detailed influences of the lockdown on the environment and public life. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-020-11360-4.

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Changes in U.S. air pollution during the COVID-19 pandemic

Cited by 554 publications

References 10 publications

Decrease of mobility, electricity demand, and NO2 emissions on COVID-19 times and their feedback on prevention measures

Decrease of mobility, electricity demand, and NO2 emissions on COVID-19 times and their feedback on prevention measures

Assessing the immediate impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the air quality of Kolkata and Howrah, West Bengal, India

Effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on criteria air pollutants in the city of Daegu, the epicenter of South Korea’s outbreak

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