Potential health benefits of sustained air quality improvements in New York City: A simulation based on air pollution levels during the COVID-19 shutdown

Perera, Frederica P.; Berberian, Alique; Cooley, David; Shenaut, Elizabeth; Olmstead, Hollie; Ross, Zev; Matte, Thomas

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2020.110555

Cited by 23 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Notably, although there was a clear year-to-year variation in SO 2 from 2011 to 2019 (Figure 4), which was particularly high in May-August (i.e., about twice as high as in winter), SO 2 decreased after a nationwide emergency declaration was issued on 9 April 2020. Such air pollution declines during COVID-19 lockdowns have been observed worldwide [31][32][33].…”

Section: Association Between Asthma Ed Visits and Environmental Factorsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Impact of the State of Emergency during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 on Asthma Exacerbations among Children in Kobe City, Japan

Yamaguchi

Nozu

Ishiko

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic altered environmental factors. We studied the impact of these changes on asthma exacerbation (AE) by comparing the AE-related environmental factors between COVID-19 (2020) and pre-COVID-19 (2011–2019) eras. Between 2011 and 2020, 278,465 children (<16 years old) visited our emergency department, and 7476 were diagnosed with AE. The number of patients showed spring and fall peaks in 2011–2019. Multivariate analyses showed significant positive relationships of the number of AE patients with the average temperature among all patients and 0–5-year-olds and with sulfur dioxide (SO2) levels in 2011–2019 among 0–5-year-olds. Although the spring peak in the number of patients was not observed in 2020 after declaration of a state of emergency, the fall peak was again observed after the state of emergency was lifted. No changes in average temperature were detected, but SO2 was significantly reduced following declaration of the state of emergency in 2020. Therefore, SO2 reduction might have contributed to the disappearance of the peak of AE. However, a fall peak was observed again in 2020, although SO2 levels continued to be low. These data suggest that person to person interaction seems to be associated with AE, presumably due to unknown viral infections.

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Section: Association Between Asthma Ed Visits and Environmental Factorsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Impact of the State of Emergency during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 on Asthma Exacerbations among Children in Kobe City, Japan

Yamaguchi

Nozu

Ishiko

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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“…It is worth mentioning that the time of measurement was essential, as the short-term lockdown did not affect air quality in New York City at the beginning of the pandemic [ 30 ]. However, recent results show considerable PM2.5 reduction followed by Substantial health and associated economic benefits [ 31 ]. Unlike the majority of urban areas, the quality of the air in rural areas did not change such as in Gadanki, India [ 32 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating the current environmental situation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic: urban vs. rural context

et al. 2022

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Background Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to a massive global socio-economic tragedy that has impacted the ecosystem. This paper aims to contextualize urban and rural environmental situations during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region. Results An online survey was conducted, 6770 participants were included in the final analysis, and 64% were females. The majority of the participants were urban citizens (74%). Over 50% of the urban residents significantly (p < 0.001) reported a reduction in noise, gathering in tourist areas, and gathering in malls and restaurants. Concerning the pollutants, most urban and rural areas have reported an increase in masks thrown in streets (69.49% vs. 73.22%, resp.; p = 0.003). Plastic bags and hospital waste also increased significantly with the same p-value of < 0.001 in urban areas compared with rural ones. The multifactorial logistic model for urban resident predictors achieved acceptable discrimination (AUROC = 0.633) according to age, crowdedness, noise and few pollutants. Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic had a beneficial impact on the environment and at the same time, various challenges regarding plastic and medical wastes are rising which requires environmental interventions.

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“…It has been speculated that 1 of these indirect consequences is an impact on the birth outcomes, including a change in the prevalence of preterm birth. The suggested potential mechanisms for such an impact include hypotheses about improved air quality (because of strict lockdown measures), prevention of infections that may otherwise trigger preterm labour 1 , 2 , 3 , and changes to health-seeking behavior. In contrast, pregnant women have experienced added anxiety about COVID-19 infection alongside the negative impacts of unemployment and income insecurity, working from home, home-schooling, and reduced social support.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preterm birth after the introduction of COVID-19 mitigation measures in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark: a registry-based difference-in-differences study

Oakley

Örtqvist

Kinge

et al. 2022

American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology

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Background Although some studies have reported a decrease in preterm birth following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the findings are inconsistent. Objective This study aimed to compare the incidences of preterm birth before and after the introduction of COVID-19 mitigation measures in Scandinavian countries using robust population-based registry data. Study Design This was a registry-based difference-in-differences study using births from January 2014 through December 2020 in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The changes in the preterm birth (<37 weeks) rates before and after the introduction of COVID-19 mitigation measures (set to March 12, 2020) were compared with the changes in preterm birth before and after March 12 from 2014 to 2019. The differences per 1000 births were calculated for 2-, 4-, 8-, 12-, and 16-week intervals before and after March 12. The secondary analyses included medically indicated preterm birth, spontaneous preterm birth, and very preterm (<32 weeks) birth. Results A total of 1,519,521 births were included in this study. During the study period, 5.6% of the births were preterm in Norway and Sweden, and 5.7% were preterm in Denmark. There was a seasonal variation in the incidence of preterm birth, with the highest incidence during winter. In all the 3 countries, there was a slight overall decline in preterm births from 2014 to 2020. There was no consistent evidence of a change in the preterm birth rates following the introduction of COVID-19 mitigation measures, with difference-in-differences estimates ranging from 3.7 per 1000 births (95% confidence interval, −3.8 to 11.1) for the first 2 weeks after March 12, 2020, to −1.8 per 1000 births (95% confidence interval, −4.6 to 1.1) in the 16 weeks after March 12, 2020. Similarly, there was no evidence of an impact on medically indicated preterm birth, spontaneous preterm birth, or very preterm birth. Conclusion Using high-quality national data on births in 3 Scandinavian countries, each of which implemented different approaches to address the pandemic, there was no evidence of a decline in preterm births following the introduction of COVID-19 mitigation measures.

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Potential health benefits of sustained air quality improvements in New York City: A simulation based on air pollution levels during the COVID-19 shutdown

Cited by 23 publications

References 35 publications

Impact of the State of Emergency during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 on Asthma Exacerbations among Children in Kobe City, Japan

Impact of the State of Emergency during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 on Asthma Exacerbations among Children in Kobe City, Japan

Investigating the current environmental situation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic: urban vs. rural context

Preterm birth after the introduction of COVID-19 mitigation measures in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark: a registry-based difference-in-differences study

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