Highlighting the compound risk of COVID-19 and environmental pollutants using geospatial technology

Singh, Ram Kumar; Drews, Martin; Sen, M. De La; Srivastava, Prashant K.; Trisasongko, Bambang H.; Kumar, Manoj; Pandey, Manish Kumar; Asundi, Anand; Singh, Shweta; Pandey, Ajai Kumar; Dobriyal, Manmohan; Rani, Meenu; Kumar, Pavan

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-87877-6

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Such extreme measures in social distancing, limitations of transportation, industrial production and human activities have resulted in unprecedented temporary decreases of aerosols and atmospheric pollutants (NO 2 , CO, SO 2 , and PM), mainly due to the confinement of combustion of fossil fuels and fumes from sclerotic traffic ( Marinello et al, 2021 ; Muhammad et al, 2020 ; Wang & Li, 2021 ; Xu et al, 2020 ). Therefore, a large decrease in air pollution and positive environmental implications are reported for the first time since World War –II due to the worldwide lockdowns in awake of the COVID-19 pandemic ( Evangeliou et al, 2021 ; Grivas et al, 2020 ; Singh et al, 2021 ). Several studies demonstrated a considerable decrease in atmospheric pollutants across urban areas worldwide due to national lockdowns ( Bauwens et al, 2020 ; Latif et al, 2021 ; Wang & Su, 2020 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of COVID-19 induced lockdown on land surface temperature, aerosol, and urban heat in Europe and North America

Parida

Bar

Kaskaoutis

et al. 2021

Sustainable Cities and Society

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The outbreak of SARS CoV-2 (COVID-19) has posed a serious threat to human beings, society, and economic activities all over the world. Worldwide rigorous containment measures for limiting the spread of the virus have several beneficial environmental implications due to decreased anthropogenic emissions and air pollutants, which provide a unique opportunity to understand and quantify the human impact on atmospheric environment. In the present study, the associated changes in Land Surface Temperature (LST), aerosol, and atmospheric water vapor content were investigated over highly COVID-19 impacted areas, namely, Europe and North America. The key findings revealed a large-scale negative standardized LST anomaly during nighttime across Europe (–0.11°C to –2.6°C), USA (–0.70°C) and Canada (–0.27°C) in March–May of the pandemic year 2020 compared to the mean of 2015–2019, which can be partly ascribed to the lockdown effect. The reduced LST was corroborated with the negative anomaly of air temperature measured at meteorological stations (i.e. –0.46°C to –0.96°C). A larger decrease in nighttime LST was also seen in urban areas (by ∼1–2°C) compared to rural landscapes, which suggests a weakness of the urban heat island effect during the lockdown period due to large decrease in absorbing aerosols and air pollutants. On the contrary, daytime LST increased over most parts of Europe due to less attenuation of solar radiation by atmospheric aerosols. Synoptic meteorological variability and several surface-related factors may mask these changes and significantly affect the variations in LST, aerosols and water vapour content. The changes in LST may be a temporary phenomenon during the lockdown but provides an excellent opportunity to investigate the effects of various forcing controlling factors in urban microclimate and a strong evidence base for potential environmental benefits through urban planning and policy implementation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of COVID-19 induced lockdown on land surface temperature, aerosol, and urban heat in Europe and North America

Parida

Bar

Kaskaoutis

et al. 2021

Sustainable Cities and Society

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“…Finally, several modifying factors were invoked to explain why patterns varied considerably across countries and within them in different cities. The most common factor invoked was the stringency of lockdown measures 36–38 as well as population density 39 ; both were correlated with greater reductions in pollutant levels. Several authors speculated that high elevation areas and less residential areas/rural populations might have smaller absolute decreases, because they started from low baseline pollutant levels.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on air pollution in Europe and North America: a systematic review

Bakola

Carballo

Jelastopulu

et al. 2022

European Journal of Public Health

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Background Multiple studies report reductions in air pollution associated with COVID-19 lockdowns. Methods We performed a systematic review of the changes observed in hazardous air pollutants known or suspected to be harmful to health, including nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM). We searched PubMed and Web of Science for studies reporting the associations of lockdowns with air pollutant changes during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and North America. Results One hundred nine studies were identified and analyzed. Several pollutants exhibited marked and sustained reductions. The strongest was NO2 (93% of 89 estimated changes were reductions) followed by CO (88% of 33 estimated pollutant changes). All NOx and benzene studies reported significant reductions although these were based on fewer than 10 estimates. About three-quarters of PM2.5 and PM10 estimates showed reductions and few studies reported increases when domestic fuel use rose during COVID-19 lockdowns. In contrast, O3 levels rose as NOx levels fell. SO2 and ammonia (NH3) had mixed results. In general, greater reductions appeared when lockdowns were more severe, as well as where baseline pollutant levels were higher, such as at low-elevation and in densely populated areas. Substantial and robust reductions in NO2, NO, CO, CO2, PM2.5, PM10, benzene and air quality index pollution occurred in association with COVID-19 lockdowns. O3 levels tended to increase, while SO2 and NH3 had mixed patterns. Conclusions Our study shows the profound impact of human activity levels on air pollution and its potential avoidability.

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“…Infection due to novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The genome has a spherical or pleomorphic form that is encased in a glycoprotein structure on its surface [1][2][3]. As COVID-19 cases keep rising exponentially during the waves (1st and 2nd), researchers are working to test antivirals and other therapies in parallel to other interventions [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In Silico Evaluation of Binding of 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose with Mpro of nCoV to Combat COVID-19

et al. 2022

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COVID-19 has threatened the existence of humanity andthis infection occurs due to SARS-CoV-2 or novel coronavirus, was first reported in Wuhan, China. Therefore, there is a need to find a promising drug to cure the people suffering from the infection. The second wave of this viral infection was shaking the world in the first half of 2021. Drugs Controllers of India has allowed the emergency use of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) in 2021 for patients suffering from this viral infection. The potentiality of 2-deoxy-D-glucose to intervene in D-glucose metabolism exists and energy deprivation is an effective parameter to inhibit cancer cell development. Once 2DG arrives in the cells, it becomes phosphorylated to 2-deoxy-D-glucose-6-phosphate (2-DG6P), a charged molecule expressively captured inside the cells. On the other hand, 2DG lacks the ability to convert into fructose-6-phosphate, resulting in a hampering of the activity of both glucose-6-phosphate isomerase and hexokinase, and finally causing cell death. Hence, the potential and effectiveness of 2DG with the main protease (Mpro) of novel coronavirus (nCoV) should be investigated using the molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The ability of 2DG to inhibit the Mpro of nCoV is compared with 2-deoxyglucose (2DAG), an acyclic molecule, and 2-deoxy-D-ribose (2DR). The binding energy of the molecules with the Mpro of nCoV is calculated using molecular docking and superimposed analysis data is obtained. The binding energy of 2DG, 2DR and 2DAG was −2.40, −2.22 and −2.88 kcal/mol respectively. Although the molecular docking does not provide reliable information, therefore, the binding affinity can be confirmed by molecular dynamics simulations. Various trajectories such as Rg, RMSD, RMSF, and hydrogen bonds are obtained from the molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. 2DG was found to be a better inhibitor than the 2DAG and 2DR based on the results obtained from the MD simulations at 300 K. Furthermore, temperature-dependent MD simulations of the Mpro of nCoV with promising 2DG was performed at 295, 310 and 315 K, and the effective binding with the Mpro of nCoV occurred at 295 K. With the use of DFT calculations, optimized geometry and localization of electron density of the frontier molecular orbitals were calculated.

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Highlighting the compound risk of COVID-19 and environmental pollutants using geospatial technology

Cited by 15 publications

References 50 publications

Impact of COVID-19 induced lockdown on land surface temperature, aerosol, and urban heat in Europe and North America

Impact of COVID-19 induced lockdown on land surface temperature, aerosol, and urban heat in Europe and North America

The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on air pollution in Europe and North America: a systematic review

In Silico Evaluation of Binding of 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose with Mpro of nCoV to Combat COVID-19

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