scholarly journals Analyzing relationships between air pollutants and Covid-19 cases during lockdowns in Iran using Sentinel-5 data

Author(s):  
Abdullah Kaviani Rad ◽  
Mohsen Shariati ◽  
Armin Naghipour

Introduction: Air quality improvement was an unparalleled environmental consequence of the Covid-19 global crisis in many regions. Numerous researches have been conducted on the influence of national quarantines on air pollution and the relationship between the abundance of infected cases and mortality caused by this pandemic with air pollutants; however, these investigations are limited in Iran. The present study aims to investigate the correlation between Covid-19 cases and air pollution from a statistical viewpoint in order to evaluate the performance of multiple national lockdowns from February 2020 to August 2021 through measuring changes in air pollutants in the 31 provinces of Iran. Materials and methods: We applied a remote sensing method by employing Sentinel-5P satellite data to analyze changes in PM2.5, CO, and O3 during the three public quarantine periods and their two months earlier. Results: We recognized a considerable positive correlation between PM2.5 and the infected cases (r=0.63, p=0.001) and victims (r=0.41, p=0.001). Moreover, we compared the efficiency of lockdowns and supposed lockdown 2 (November-December 2020) as an only effective quarantine due to a dramatic reduction in PM2.5 (21.2%), CO (0.8%), the infected cases (48.7%), and victims (66.9%) in comparison to the average of its next two months. Conclusion: Governments should handle the outbreak of Covid-19 by implementing efficient quarantines, as well as environmental conservation strategies.

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Zhang ◽  
Yujie Meng ◽  
Hejia Song ◽  
Ran Niu ◽  
Yu Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Although exposure to air pollution has been linked to many health issues, few studies have quantified the modification effect of temperature on the relationship between air pollutants and daily incidence of influenza in Ningbo, China. Methods The data of daily incidence of influenza and the relevant meteorological data and air pollution data in Ningbo from 2014 to 2017 were retrieved. Low, medium and high temperature layers were stratified by the daily mean temperature with 25th and 75th percentiles. The potential modification effect of temperature on the relationship between air pollutants and daily incidence of influenza in Ningbo was investigated through analyzing the effects of air pollutants stratified by temperature stratum using distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM). Stratified analysis by sex and age were also conducted. Results Overall, a 10 μg/m3 increment of O3, PM2.5, PM10 and NO2 could increase the incidence risk of influenza with the cumulative relative risk of 1.028 (95% CI 1.007, 1.050), 1.061 (95% CI 1.004, 1.122), 1.043 (95% CI 1.003, 1.085), and 1.118 (95% CI 1.028, 1.216), respectively. Male and aged 7–17 years were more sensitive to air pollutants. Through the temperature stratification analysis, we found that temperature could modify the impacts of air pollution on daily incidence of influenza with high temperature exacerbating the impact of air pollutants. At high temperature layer, male and the groups aged 0–6 years and 18–64 years were more sensitive to air pollution. Conclusion Temperature modified the relationship between air pollution and daily incidence of influenza and high temperature would exacerbate the effects of air pollutants in Ningbo.


2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateus Habermann ◽  
Míriam Souza ◽  
Rogério Prado ◽  
Nelson Gouveia

Air pollution is a leading public health concern. In addition, poor populations have been reported as showing increased exposure to such pollution. The current study thus aimed to evaluate the socioeconomic status of the population exposed to vehicle-related air pollution in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The study used data from the 2010 Census on head-of-household’s mean monthly income and the percentage of households connected to the sewage system. Exposure to air pollutants was estimated according to traffic density in the census tract plus a 200m surrounding buffer. The relationship between exposure and socioeconomic variables was analyzed by the Kruskal-Wallis test. Exposure increased with increasing socioeconomic status (p < 0.001). The population with the highest socioeconomic status lives in the most polluted areas of the city. However, place of residence alone is not capable of measuring exposure. The study suggests that future epidemiological studies include other indicators of vulnerability.


UNICIÊNCIAS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-200
Author(s):  
Dayane Dos Santos Souza Magalhães ◽  
Leticia Rosa Espírito Santo de Freitas ◽  
Maria Amélia Dos Santos Peres Santos Souza ◽  
Vander Fernandes ◽  
Walkiria Shimoya-Bittencourt ◽  
...  

A artrite reumatoide é uma doença inflamatória, crônica, autoimune, sistêmica e progressiva com etiologia ainda desconhecida, que causa danos progressivos ao sistema musculoesquelético. Esta doença atinge aproximadamente 0,5% a 1% da população mundial, predomina no sexo feminino e acomete todas as faixas etárias com maior prevalência entre 40-60 anos. A atividade da doença é avaliada pelo Índice de Atividade da Doença (DAS28) analisando 28 articulações. Estudos demonstram que a poluição atmosférica está associada aos agravos à saúde humana e à perda de qualidade de vida. Este estudo teve como objetivo relatar o papel da poluição atmosférica na artrite reumatoide, através de uma revisão narrativa de literatura, a partir das bases de dados PubMed e Scielo. Incluíram-se artigos nos idiomas inglês e português publicados em periódicos, nacionais e internacionais, acerca da temática da pesquisa. A relação entre o desenvolvimento da AR e diferentes poluentes atmosféricos foi analisada em diversos estudos, que demostraram associação entre diferentes poluentes atmosféricos e o desenvolvimento da doença, no entanto, nenhum estudo publicado até a data atual, avaliou a relação com a exacerbação da atividade da doença.   Palavras-chave: Artrite Reumatoide. Poluição do Ar. Doenças Autoimunes.   Abstract Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory, chronic, autoimmune, systemic and progressive disease with a still unknown etiology that causes progressive damage to the musculoskeletal system. This disease affects approximately 0.5% to 1% of the world population, predominates in females and affects all age groups with a higher prevalence between 40-60 years. The disease activity is assessed by the Disease Activity Index (DAS28) analyzing 28 joints. Studies show that air pollution is associated with damage to human health and loss of quality of life. This study aimed to report the role of air pollution in rheumatoid arthritis, through a literature narrative review, using the PubMed and Scielo databases. Articles in English and Portuguese published in national and international journals about the research theme were included. The relationship between the RA development and different air pollutants has been analyzed in several studies, which showed an association between different air pollutants and the development of the disease, however, no study published to date has evaluated the relationship with the disease activity exacerbation.   Keywords: Rheumatoid Arthritis. Air Pollution. Autoimmune Diseases.    


2017 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-23
Author(s):  
Josiah Marquis ◽  
Meriem Benlamri ◽  
Elizabeth Dent ◽  
Tharmitha Suyeshkumar

Almost half of the Canadian landscape is made up of forests, but the amount of forest surface area burned every year has been growing steadily since 1960.1 This can be problematic due to the effects that forest fires have not only on the local environment but also on the globe as a whole. A forest fire or vegetation fire is defined as any open fire of vegetation such as savannah, forest, agriculture, or peat that is initiated by humans or nature.2 Vegetation fires contribute heavily to air pollution and climate change and are in turn exacerbated by them as well. Air pollution increases due to emissions from these fires, which contain 90-95% carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide as well as methane and other volatile compounds.2 Emissions from forest fires also contribute to global greenhouse gases and aerosol particles (biomass burning organic aerosols),2 leading to indirect and direct consequences to human health. In contrast to biomass burning for household heating and cooking, catastrophic events of forest fires and sweeping grassland fires result in unique exposures and health consequences. In this case report, the relationship between environmental hazardous air pollutants and the potential physiological and psychological health effects associated with the forest fire that affected Fort McMurray, AB in May 2016 are considered.


2019 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 02012
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Piaskowska-Silarska ◽  
Krzysztof Pytel ◽  
Stanisław Gumuła ◽  
Wiktor Hudy

Abstract. The publication presents an assessment of the impact of meteorological conditions on air quality in a given location. The subject matter of the work is related to problem-review issues in the field of environmental protection and energy management. The publication draws attention to the fact that despite several decades of ecological monitoring of air pollution, only in recent years attention has been paid to the scale of air pollution problem. The study examined the relationship between meteorological elements (wind velocity, relative humidity on the amount of air pollution immissions. Significant impact of precipitation, atmospheric pressure and thermal braking layer was indicated. The possibilities of air quality improvement were presented based on the measurement data concerning the immission of impurities.


Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yifeng Xue ◽  
Shihao Zhang ◽  
Zhen Zhou ◽  
Kun Wang ◽  
Kaiyun Liu ◽  
...  

Air pollution in Beijing, China has attracted continuous worldwide public attention along with the rapid urbanization of the city. By implementing a set of air pollution mitigation measures, the air quality of Beijing has been gradually improved in recent years. In this study, the intrinsic factors leading to air quality improvement in Beijing are studied via a quantitative evaluation of the temporal and spatial changes in emissions of primary air pollutants over the past ten years. Based on detailed activity levels of each economic sector and a localized database containing source and pollutant specific emission factors, an integrated emissions inventory of primary air pollutants discharged from various sources between 2006 and 2015 is established. With the implementation of phased air pollution mitigation measures, and the Clean Air Action Plan, the original coal-dominated energy structure in Beijing has undergone tremendous changes, resulting in the substantial reduction of multiple air pollutants. The total of emissions of six major atmospheric pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NOX, VOCs and NH3) in Beijing decreased by 35% in 2015 compared to 2006—this noticeable decrease was well consistent with the declining trend of ambient concentration of criterion air pollutants (SO2, PM10, PM2.5 and NO2) and air quality improvement, thus showing a good correlation between the emission of air pollutants and the outcome of air quality. SO2 emission declined the most, at about 71.7%, which was related to the vigorous promotion of combustion source control, such as the shutdown of coal-fired facilities and domestic stoves and transition to clean energy, like natural gas or electricity. Emissions of PM decreased considerably (by 48%) due to energy structure optimization, industrial structure adjustments, and end-of-pipe PM source control. In general, NOX, NH3, and VOCs decreased relatively slightly, by 25%, 14%, and 2%, respectively, and accordingly, they represented the limiting factors for improving air quality and the key points of air pollution mitigation in Beijing for the future.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulnoor Ali Jazem Ghanim

Abstract COVID-19 has been considered as one of the major global pandemic which has caused different health problems by affecting the majority of the population throughout the world. Several studies have evolved the concerns of air pollution being considered as a major risk factor causing respiratory infection that are carried out by microorganisms which further affects the immunity system of the body. The present study involves the relationship between the air pollutants and COVID-19 total infection along with estimation of death rates in the several regions of Saudi Arabia. The major goal of this study comprises the analysis of the relationship between air pollutants concentration such as (PM10, NO2, CO, SO2 and O3) and COVID-19 wide outbreak, concerning the transmission, number of patients, critical cases and death rates . The results show that the estimation of COVID-19 cases were highest in number recorded in the most polluted regions, the mortality rate and critical cases were also more distinct in these regions more than other regions in Saudi Arabia. The finding of this study shows a positive correlation between mean PM 10, NO2, CO and SO2 pollutants. The results represent the significant relationship between air pollution resulting from high concentration of NO2 and COVID-19 infection and deaths. Null hypothesis of the relation between other pollutants and COVID-19 infection couldn’t be rejected. The study also indicates significant correlation between mean NO2 and CO and total number of critical cases, and negative correlations were obtained between Mean O3 and total number of cases, total deaths and critical case per cumulative days.


PLoS Medicine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. e1003767
Author(s):  
Xiang Li ◽  
Mengying Wang ◽  
Yongze Song ◽  
Hao Ma ◽  
Tao Zhou ◽  
...  

Background Air pollution has been related to incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D). We assessed the joint association of various air pollutants with the risk of T2D and examined potential modification by obesity status and genetic susceptibility on the relationship. Methods and findings A total of 449,006 participants from UK Biobank free of T2D at baseline were included. Of all the study population, 90.9% were white and 45.7% were male. The participants had a mean age of 56.6 (SD 8.1) years old and a mean body mass index (BMI) of 27.4 (SD 4.8) kg/m2. Ambient air pollutants, including particulate matter (PM) with diameters ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5), between 2.5 μm and 10 μm (PM2.5–10), nitrogen oxide (NO2), and nitric oxide (NO) were measured. An air pollution score was created to assess the joint exposure to the 4 air pollutants. During a median of 11 years follow-up, we documented 18,239 incident T2D cases. The air pollution score was significantly associated with a higher risk of T2D. Compared to the lowest quintile of air pollution score, the hazard ratio (HR) (95% confidence interval [CI]) for T2D was 1.05 (0.99 to 1.10, p = 0.11), 1.06 (1.00 to 1.11, p = 0.051), 1.09 (1.03 to 1.15, p = 0.002), and 1.12 (1.06 to 1.19, p < 0.001) for the second to fifth quintile, respectively, after adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle factors, genetic factors, and other covariates. In addition, we found a significant interaction between the air pollution score and obesity status on the risk of T2D (p-interaction < 0.001). The observed association was more pronounced among overweight and obese participants than in the normal-weight people. Genetic risk score (GRS) for T2D or obesity did not modify the relationship between air pollution and risk of T2D. Key study limitations include unavailable data on other potential T2D-related air pollutants and single-time measurement on air pollutants. Conclusions We found that various air pollutants PM2.5, PM2.5–10, NO2, and NO, individually or jointly, were associated with an increased risk of T2D in the population. The stratified analyses indicate that such associations were more strongly associated with T2D risk among those with higher adiposity.


2014 ◽  
Vol 675-677 ◽  
pp. 314-317
Author(s):  
Dan Xue ◽  
Qian Liu

Air pollution has been deteriorated seriously in Shanghai as a result of urbanization and modernization. Visibility reduction is the most apparent symptom of air pollution. This paper aims to describe the characteristics of visibility and air pollutants in Shanghai, and to investigate the relationship between them. Visibility in Shanghai was higher in summer and lower in winter. The mean value of visibility during 2006-2010 was 17.8km. Air pollution in Shanghai was also serious. In 2010, Shanghai got the relative better air quality compared with the former four years. Air pollutants and visibility were negatively correlated. SO2 and NO2 had higher correlation coefficients with visibility than PM10. This suggested that the visibility in Shanghai was mainly due to secondary pollutants.


Proceedings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Monika Załuska ◽  
Katarzyna Gładyszewska-Fiedoruk

The level of environmental quality is the result of many factors, and the most important of these is human activity. A responsible approach to the environment is looking for methods to eliminate pollution from the environment. Waste incineration is a way to rationally manage and process waste, minimize emissions of air pollutants and ecologically produce heat and electricity. The purpose of this article is to build and analyze a regression model describing the relationship of pollutant emissions to air from waste incineration plants depending on various factors.


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