Exacerbation of Fatality Rates Induced by Poor Air Quality Due to Open-Air Mass Funeral Pyre Cremation during the Second Wave of COVID-19

Abstract

This study investigates the air pollution-induced mortality rate during the second wave of COVID-19, which claimed several thousand lives in the capital city of India, New Delhi, even during a lockdown period. Delhi is a hotspot of unhealthy air quality. During the second wave of COVID-19 in 2021, surface ozone levels were observed to be higher, which had a direct impact on lung function, thereby making people more susceptible to COVID-19. The correlation coefficient between surface ozone concentration and mortality has been observed to be 0.74 at a 95% confidence level. This work focuses on the plausible impact and feedback of poor air quality induced by the burning of open-air funeral pyres due to the increased COVID-19 mortality rate in New Delhi, estimated by using an epidemiological model (AirQ+) of the World Health Organization. The mortality rate estimated quantitatively with the aid of AirQ+ is 1.27 excess deaths per 100,000 population due to surface ozone from pyre burning. The findings suggest transformational system goals before the resurgence of a subsequent wave.

Two Decades of Air Pollution Health Risk Assessment: Insights From the Use of WHO’s AirQ and AirQ+ Tools

“…Around three-quarters of the studies using either AirQ or AirQ+ focused on research-related questions (Supplementary Figure S4, Supplementary Tables S2, S3), followed by policy planning (2% of studies that used AirQ and 15% for AirQ+), the impact assessment of sand and dust storms in various cities of Iran and Poland (14 studies using either AirQ or AirQ+) [15,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], and assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on air quality and health (5 studies) [36][37][38][39][40]. Individual studies assessed the impact of AP episodes or extreme events, such as (Indian monsoon [13,31] or large forest fires and megafires in the center region of Portugal [41]), and the use of residential wood combustion in cities of Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark [42].…”

Predicting of Daily PM2.5 Concentration Employing Wavelet Artificial Neural Networks Based on Meteorological Elements in Shanghai, China

“…On 30 January 2020, the WHO Emergency Committee designated COVID-19 as a global health emergency; as of 12 August 2022, COVID-19 had caused at least 585,950,085 confirmed cases and 6,425,422 deaths globally (WHO). The COVID-19 epidemic has had an unprecedented influence on global air pollution [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. The abrupt COVID-19 pandemic offers a chance to research the impact of urban blockade policies on the change of air pollutants, and to describe the normal modes of air pollution under the disappearance of the epidemic [ 24 ].…”

DataSheet1.PDF

“…Around three-quarters of the studies using either AirQ or AirQ+ focused on research-related questions (Supplementary Figure S4, Supplementary Tables S2, S3), followed by policy planning (2% of studies that used AirQ and 15% for AirQ+), the impact assessment of sand and dust storms in various cities of Iran and Poland (14 studies using either AirQ or AirQ+) [15,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35], and assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on air quality and health (5 studies) [36][37][38][39][40]. Individual studies assessed the impact of AP episodes or extreme events, such as (Indian monsoon [13,31] or large forest fires and megafires in the center region of Portugal [41]), and the use of residential wood combustion in cities of Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark [42].…”