Assessing Air Quality in Greece in Times of a Global Pandemic

At the end of 2019, the first cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported in Wuhan, China. Thereafter, the number of infected people increased rapidly, and the outbreak turned into a national crisis, with infected individuals all over the country. The COVID-19 global pandemic produced extreme changes in human behavior that affected air quality. Human mobility and production activities decreased significantly, and many regions recorded significant reductions in air pollution. The goal of our investigation was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the concentrations of the main air pollutants in the urban area of Palermo (Italy). In this study, the trends in the average concentrations of CO, NO2, O3, and PM10 in the air from 1 January 2020 to 31 July 2020 were compared with the corresponding average values detected at the same monitoring stations in Palermo during the previous five years (2015–2019). During the lockdown period (10 March–30 April), we observed a decrease in the concentrations of CO, NO2, and particulate matter (PM)10, calculated to be about 51%, 50%, and 45%, respectively. This confirms that air pollution in an urban area is predominantly linked to vehicular traffic.

Download Full-text

Machine Learning on the COVID-19 Pandemic, Human Mobility, and Air Quality: A Review

10.20944/preprints202103.0396.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Md Mokhlesur Rahman ◽

Kamal Chandra Paul ◽

Md. Amjad Hossain ◽

G. G. Md. Nawaz Ali ◽

Md. Shahinoor Rahman ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Machine Learning ◽

Air Quality ◽

Urban Form ◽

Human Mobility ◽

Virus Transmission ◽

Past Research ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Viral Spread ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Review Study

The ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic is affecting every facet of human lives (e.g., public health, education, economy, transportation, and the environment). This novel pandemic and citywide implemented lockdown measures are affecting virus transmission, people’s travel patterns, and air quality. Many studies have been conducted to predict the COVID-19 diffusion, assess the impacts of the pandemic on human mobility and air quality, and assess the impacts of lockdown measures on viral spread with a range of Machine Learning (ML) techniques. This review study aims to analyze results from past research to understand the interactions among the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown measures, human mobility, and air quality. The critical review of prior studies indicates that urban form, people's socioeconomic and physical conditions, social cohesion, and social distancing measures significantly affect human mobility and COVID-19 transmission. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people are inclined to use private transportation for necessary travel purposes to mitigate coronavirus-related health problems. This review study also noticed that COVID-19 related lockdown measures significantly improve air quality by reducing the concentration of air pollutants, which in turn improves the COVID-19 situation by reducing respiratory-related sickness and deaths of the people. It is argued that ML is a powerful, effective, and robust analytic paradigm to handle complex and wicked problems such as a global pandemic. This study also discusses policy implications, which will be helpful for policymakers to take prompt actions to moderate the severity of the pandemic and improve urban environments by adopting data-driven analytic methods.

Download Full-text

The effect of increasing indoor ventilation on artificially generated aerosol particle counts

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0258382 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (10) ◽

pp. e0258382

Author(s):

Ashwin Johri

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Aerosol Particle ◽

Constant Temperature ◽

Small Particle ◽

Narrow Range ◽

Effective Solution ◽

Fixed Amount ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Particle Counts ◽

Indoor Aerosol

The COVID-19 global pandemic has caused millions of infections and deaths despite mitigation efforts that involve physical distancing, mask-wearing, avoiding indoor gatherings and increasing indoor ventilation. The purpose of this study was to compare ways to improve indoor ventilation and assess its effect on artificially generated aerosol counts. It was hypothesized that inbuilt kitchen vents would be more effective in reducing indoor aerosol counts than opening windows alone. A fixed amount of saline aerosol was dispersed in the experimental area using a nebulizer under constant temperature and a narrow range of humidity. A laser air quality monitor was used to record small particle counts every 30 minutes from baseline to 120 minutes for four different experimental groups for each combination of kitchen vents and windows. The results of the study demonstrate that aerosol counts were lowest with the kitchen exhaust vents on. This study suggests that liberal use of home exhaust systems like the kitchen vents could achieve significantly more air exchange than open windows alone and may present an effective solution to improving indoor ventilation, especially during the colder months when people tend to congregate indoors in closed spaces. There were no safety concerns involved when conducting this experiment.

Download Full-text

Statistical Analysis of Air Quality by Emission of Different Woods: Facing the Threats of Global Pandemic with Healthcare 4.0

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management ◽

10.1504/ijicbm.2021.10040692 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Madhulika Singh ◽

Komal Singh ◽

Luv Dhamija ◽

Mayank Sharma ◽

Priyanshi Garg ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Statistical Analysis ◽

Air Quality ◽

Global Pandemic

Download Full-text

The Air Quality during the Confinement and Coronavirus 2020–2021 Period: The Case of Tunisia

Environmental Sciences Proceedings ◽

10.3390/ecas2021-10328 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 9

Author(s):

Abderrazak Arif

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Emergency Services ◽

Road Traffic ◽

World Health ◽

National Crisis ◽

The North ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

First Case ◽

The World ◽

Health Organization

At the end of 2019, the first case of coronavirus (COVID-19) was reported in Wuhan, China. A month later, that epidemic turned into a national crisis, with infected individuals diagnosed all over China. In early March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the Wuhan epidemic had turned into a global pandemic. Many European countries had started to experience several cases affected by this coronavirus, which was known to be highly contagious. The WHO launched several recommendations to curb the spread of this virus and called for general confinement establishment in the affected countries. Tunisia quickly took this step on 22 March 2020 and announced immediate general confinement for two weeks, renewable according to the test results. Factories were closed to limit human damage. International flights were halted and the majority of government and private services were halted except minimum and emergency services. Following these successive events, the air quality improved markedly during the confinement period. NASA scientists say the reduction in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution first appeared near Wuhan, Northern Italy, and France, and they experienced a reduction of nearly 50% of their NO2 emissions during this first confinement period (March–April 2020); NO2 emissions were reduced by almost 30% in China. In Tunisia, NO2, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) showed a remarkable decrease in the north and the center of Tunisia of more than 40% during this period, mainly linked to the reduction in emissions from road traffic and industries. Additionally, these pollutant gas concentrations were reduced by nearly 50% during the third pandemic wave, during the period of January–April 2021. Consequently, the air quality has improved significantly in Tunisia and around the world.

Download Full-text

Determinants on COVID-19 Case Fatality Rates of Cities in China: A Logit-NB Hurdle Model Analysis

10.21203/rs.3.rs-179394/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Hanchen Yu ◽

Xin Lao ◽

Hengyu Gu ◽

Zhihao Zhao ◽

Honghao He

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Population Density ◽

Negative Binomial ◽

Case Fatality ◽

Economic Losses ◽

Hurdle Model ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Death Probability ◽

Probability Of Death ◽

The City

Abstract Background: The ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), a global pandemic with high infectiousness and high mortality, has seriously threatened human health, life safety and caused enormous economic losses. This study investigates the influencing factors on the case fatality rate (CFR) of COVID-19 at the city level in China. Methods: A logistic-negative binomial (Logit-NB) hurdle model is employed to examine the determinants on the probability of death and the value of CFR with COVID-19, based on confirmed cases and deaths by 13 March 2020 and 25 January 2021 at the city level in China and related environmental, demographic, and socioeconomic data.Results: We found that the probability of death from COVID-19 will increase by 1% with 1 newly increased confirmed case and increase by 4% in response to a rise of 1 unit in the air quality index. CFR will feebly increase with the number of confirmed cases, with the estimator being 2.81E-05. As the number of doctors increases by 10,000, CFR will decrease by 0.18%. Each 1% increase in the humidity leads to a 0.02% decrease in CFR, and each 1-unit increase in the population density causes a 0.09% decline in CFR. The comparison between the two research periods confirms the robustness of the results.Conclusions: The number of confirmed cases and the air quality are closely associated with the death probability, while the number of confirmed cases, the medical resources, the humidity, and the population density significantly affect the CFR. Furthermore, the air quality and population density stand out in the first wave of epidemic outbreak, while they become non-significant in the second wave.

Download Full-text

Verifying Effects of Homa Therapy with Herbal Woods on Air Quality in Indian Festive Season

International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development ◽

10.4018/ijsesd.292071 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 0-0

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Threshold Level ◽

Health Issues ◽

Result Section ◽

Health Crisis ◽

Capital Region ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Time Period ◽

Cultural Ecological

In pandemic, the economic crises and health issues have brought the whole human race in unprecedented situation. Pandemic is not a single reason of health crisis, poor air quality is also a great threat for increasing mortality rate in the world. In Nation Capital Region (NCR), India and nearby areas, the time period of months of September to Decemberis very much crucial every year as due to many social, cultural, ecological and known-unknown reasons, the quality of air is degraded below threshold level causing threats to human health and lives. Present manuscript is a trial for analysis of air quality of Indian capital region amidst global pandemic and effect of Ancient Yagya and Homa science on curbing the pollution. It also indicates multiple benefits of Yagya science as well as improvements in result section where mainly pollution analysis is focused. IoT and sensor based instruments were used to collect the data and LSTN and adam optimization were applied to study the effect. It was found a reduction in pollutant particles and improvement in air quality after a week.

Download Full-text

Particulate Matter Short-Term Exposition, Mobility Trips and COVID-19 Diffusion: A Correlation Analyses for the Italian Case Study at Urban Scale

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13084553 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 4553

Author(s):

Armando Cartenì ◽

Furio Cascetta ◽

Luigi Di Francesco ◽

Felisia Palermo

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Prolonged Exposure ◽

Term Effect ◽

Short Term ◽

Italian Case ◽

Correlation Analyses ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Outdoor Environments ◽

Definition Of

The conjecture discussed in this paper was that the daily number of certified cases of COVID-19 is direct correlated to the average particular matter (PM) concentrations observed several days before when the contagions occurred (short-term effect), and this correlation is higher for areas with a higher average seasonal PM concentration, as a measure of prolonged exposure to a polluted environment (long-term effect). Furthermore, the correlations between the daily COVID-19 new cases and the mobility trips and those between the daily PM concentrations and mobility trips were also investigated. Correlation analyses were performed for the application case study consisting in 13 of the main Italian cities, through the national air quality and mobility monitoring systems. Data analyses showed that the mobility restrictions performed during the lockdown produced a significant improvement in air quality with an average PM concentrations reduction of about 15%, with maximum variations ranging between 25% and 42%. Estimation results showed a positive correlation (stronger for the more highly polluted cities) between the daily COVID-19 cases and both the daily PM concentrations and mobility trips measured about three weeks before, when probably the contagion occurred. The obtained results are original, and if confirmed in other studies, it would lay the groundwork for the definition of the main context variables which influenced the COVID-19 spread. The findings highlighted in this research also supported by the evidence in the literature and allow concluding that PM concentrations and mobility habits could be considered as potential early indicators of COVID-19 circulation in outdoor environments. However, the obtained results pose significant ethical questions about the proper urban and transportation planning; the most polluted cities have not only worst welfare for their citizens but, as highlighted in this research, could lead to a likely greater spread of current and future respiratory and/or pulmonary health emergencies. The lesson to be learned by this global pandemic will help planners to better preserve the air quality of our cities in the post-COVID-19 era.

Download Full-text

Application of Electron Optics to Characterization of Particulate Pollutants

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s042482010009508x ◽

1972 ◽

Vol 30 ◽

pp. 364-365

Author(s):

J. B. Moran ◽

J. L. Miller

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Quality Standards ◽

Ambient Air ◽

Hazardous Substances ◽

Fuel Additives ◽

Ambient Air Quality ◽

Air Quality Standards ◽

Emission Standards ◽

Stationary Sources ◽

Ambient Air Quality Standards

The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 provide the basis for a dramatic change in Federal air quality programs. The Act establishes new standards for motor vehicles and requires EPA to establish national ambient air quality standards, standards of performance for new stationary sources of pollution, and standards for stationary sources emitting hazardous substances. Further, it establishes procedures which allow states to set emission standards for existing sources in order to achieve national ambient air quality standards. The Act also permits the Administrator of EPA to register fuels and fuel additives and to regulate the use of motor vehicle fuels or fuel additives which pose a hazard to public health or welfare.National air quality standards for particulate matter have been established. Asbestos, mercury, and beryllium have been designated as hazardous air pollutants for which Federal emission standards have been proposed.

Download Full-text

Air Quality May Affect Infants' Brains

ASHA Leader ◽

10.1044/leader.ftj5.18022013.34 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 34-34

Keyword(s):

Air Quality

Air Quality May Affect Infants' Brains

Download Full-text