How do pollutants change post-pandemic? Evidence from changes in five key pollutants in nine Chinese cities most affected by the COVID-19

Environ Res. 2021 Apr 1:111108. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111108. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTUnder the COVID-19 global pandemic, China has weakened the large-scale spread of the epidemic through lockdown and other measures. At the same time, with the recovery of social production activities, China has become the only country among the major economies that will achieve positive growth in 2020. It has entered the post epidemic period. These measures have improved the local environmental quality. However, whether this improvement can be sustained is also a problem that needs to be solved. So, this study investigated the changes and differences of five air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, NO2, SO2, and CO) in the nine cities most severely affected by the pandemic in China during the lockdown period and post pandemic period. We emphasize that when analyzing the changes of environmental quality during the epidemic, we must consider not only the impact of the day and short-term changes, but also the cumulative lag effect and sustainable development. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, it is found that the concentration of pollutants decreased significantly during the lockdown compared to the situation before the epidemic. PM10 and NO2 are falling most, which downs 39% and 46% respectively. During the lockdown period, the pollutant concentration response to the pandemic has a lag of 3-7 days. More specifically, in the cities related to single pollutants, the im...
Source: Environmental Research - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Source Type: research